Summary
Disability and Work: A Strategy for Northern Ireland sets out the Department for Communities’ commitment to achieve better employment outcomes for disabled people, people with health conditions, and people who are neurodivergent.
The key outcome of the Strategy is to get an additional 50,000 disabled people into work by March 2036, and to achieve a disability employment rate of 50% and growing.
The Strategy also aims to get more disabled people into better jobs, helping to reduce the disability pay gap; reduce underemployment; and support more disabled people into self-employment.
Documents
- Disability and Work: A Strategy for Northern Ireland
- Disability and Work: A Strategy for Northern Ireland (EasyRead)
- Privacy Notice: Disability and Work Strategy Consultation
- Disability and Work: A Strategy for Northern Ireland - Equality Impact Assessment
- Disability and Work: A Strategy for Northern Ireland - Equality Impact Assessment (EasyRead)
- Disability and Work: A Strategy for Northern Ireland - Rural Needs Impact Assessment
Consultation description
The Department for Communities is consulting on ‘Disability and Work: A Strategy for Northern Ireland’, and welcomes your comments on any aspect of the above documents.
Responses to the consultation are due by 12 January 2026. Responses will be used to inform the final content of the Strategy.
Video summary
BSL
ISL
Engagement events
To provide further information to anyone who wishes to contribute to the consultation, we have arranged engagement events across Northern Ireland and online. These events will incorporate a short presentation on the Strategy followed by an opportunity for questions and to discuss the content of the Strategy. Any individual or organisation with an interest in disability employment is welcome to attend one of these engagement events.
You can register for any of the events below at Disability and Work public consultation events.
Registration is necessary for attendance to allow us to manage capacity and early registration is advised.
| Location | Venue | Date & Time |
|---|---|---|
| Derry~Londonderry | St Columb’s Park House 4 Limavady Road Waterside Derry/Londonderry BT47 6JY | Thursday 16 October 2pm - 3:30pm |
| Enniskillen | Fermanagh House Broadmeadow Place Enniskillen BT74 7HR | Monday 20 October 2pm - 3:30pm |
| Virtual | MS Teams | Wednesday 22 October 11am - 12:30pm |
| Virtual | MS Teams | Tuesday 28 October 6pm - 7:30pm |
| Craigavon | Craigavon Civic & Conference Centre Lakeview Road Craigavon BT64 1AL | Monday 3 November 2pm - 3:30pm |
| Belfast | PRONI 2 Titanic Boulevard Belfast BT3 9HQ | Tuesday 4 November 10am - 11:30am |
An additional consultation event will be held in early December 2025 for members of the Deaf Community for us to gather feedback on the Strategy and how it impacts this community. Further details about this event and how to reserve a place will be made available later.
Online response questionnaire
The Citizen Space website has been specifically designed to be as user-friendly and welcoming as possible for those who wish to participate in this consultation. It also allows us to rapidly collate everyone’s views. For this reason we would encourage anyone who is interested in responding to this consultation to use this as the method of their response.
Ways to respond
Level 3
Causeway Exchange
1-7 Bedford Street
Belfast
BT2 7EG