Programmes to Promote Employment for Disabled People: Lessons from the United States

This report reviews findings from U.S. evaluations of return-to-work supports for people with disabilities that have been influential in informing best practices and discusses implications for similar efforts in the U.K. The U.S. experience offers lessons for delivering intervention services, tracking services, and evaluating U.K. employment initiatives for people with disabilities. Some suggestions include adding incentives to allow people to work more than 16 hours a week, developing additional supports—especially supported employment services—for participants with psychiatric conditions, providing more intensive supports for long-term claimants, identifying outcomes to measure success of the program before implementation, and creating a research database from administrative files to track progress of disability policies.