We are exploring different ways and times in which you can contact us.
At present our helplines are open Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm.
The survey will help us to find out if providers would like us to extend these hours or find other ways of communicating with the customer services team.
The survey closes at 5pm on 15 October 2017.
Twenty-one FTSE 100 companies have already signed up so far, including Marks & Spencer, BT and Royal Mail.
This week, construction recruitment specialist TBT Recruitment became the 5,000th organisation to become Disability Confident, pledging their commitment to attract, recruit and retain disabled workers.
This major milestone in the take up of the new scheme coincides with The Guinness Partnership becoming the 50th organisation to achieve the status of Disability Confident Leader.
The housing association has joined other employers in making a commitment to encourage and support other businesses in their network to improve support for disabled employees.
The Minister for Disabled People, Work and Health, Penny Mordaunt, says:
A fantastic range of employers from small start-ups to influential businesses like The Guinness Partnership and TBT Recruitment are making a public commitment to improve opportunities for disabled people.
If they can do it, every one of the FTSE 100 companies can take the first step by signing up to be Disability Confident too.
Disabled people make up a significant proportion of the potential workforce, and employers must ensure they don’t miss out on some of the best talent in their community.
I urge our country’s top businesses to use their power and influence to set the agenda on disability employment for companies everywhere.
Managing Director of TBT Recruitment, Scott Jeffrey, says:
We’re delighted to be the 5,000th organisation to sign up as Disability Confident. Being part of the scheme supports our commitment to providing qualified candidates from a diverse range of backgrounds to construction, rail and highways projects all over the UK.
Almost a fifth of the working age population is disabled, and the vast majority of these people will develop their condition or impairment during their working life.
Over the last four years almost 600,000 disabled people have entered the workforce. Further progress is being made through increasing the number of Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentre Plus centres and raising awareness of programmes like Disability Confident and Access to Work.
The Disability Confident scheme, launched in November 2016, provides employers with the skills, examples and confidence they need to recruit, retain and develop disabled employees.
The scheme was developed with employers, disability charities, and disabled people.
FTSE 100 companies will only be eligible to sign up to the scheme if they are British based and employ staff.
The scheme has 3 levels:
At each level employers commit to taking actions that will make a real difference to disabled employment.
To become a Disability Confident Leader, organisations must act as a champion for the scheme within their local and business communities. To reach this level organisations must also have their self-assessment validated from outside their business.
The Guinness Partnership is one of England’s largest affordable housing and care providers. They manage 65,000 homes for more than 135,000 customers.
TBT Recruitment are an experienced supplier of highly trained labour to the construction, rail and highways sectors, nationwide.
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A new scheme that will improve flood protection, boost wildlife habitats and create 160 hectares of new saltmarsh, was opened today (Thursday 21st September).
The new reserve not only creates new saltmarsh habitat but strengthens sea defences. The £6 million scheme at Hesketh, in Lancashire, is a partnership project between the RSPB, Natural England and the Environment Agency.
The RSPB’s Hesketh Out Marsh Reserve and Natural England’s Ribble Estuary National Nature Reserve (NNR) are a real world demonstration of the newly-launched joint strategy for NNRs. The Environment Agency has breached the banks at Hesketh Out Marsh East. This important work has been made possible by:
Environment Minister Thérèse Coffey said:
Hesketh is an inspiring project, creating fantastic new habitats for wildlife and providing increased flood protection for hundreds of people living around the Ribble Estuary.
This £6 million scheme shows how embracing new ideas and working with partners can create tremendous benefits for the environment.
Natural England’s Chairman, Andrew Sells, said:
England’s National Nature Reserves are the most special places for nature, which also help improve the wellbeing of people making more than 17 million visits every year. Uniting these two reserves on the Ribble will create wonderful new habitat, reduce the risk of flooding and enhance the area’s appeal to wildlife.
It is also an extremely symbolic moment, demonstrating how conservation will work in the future. Bringing together a number of important organisations and the local community, with the aim of providing a far greater home for nature, is at the heart of the new Joint NNR strategy. It will enable us all to deliver more public benefits, such as improved health and wellbeing, and allow wildlife to spill over and enrich the surrounding countryside.
On completion, the full RSPB Hesketh Out Marsh Reserve will include 340 hectares of saltmarsh, making it the largest site of its kind in the north of England. Natural England will designate the reserve as part of the existing Ribble Estuary NNR later in 2017. The RSPB and Natural England will then jointly manage both sites as effectively one large reserve. Ribble Estuary NNR is already England’s third largest National Nature Reserve.
Robin Horner, RSPB Area Manager said:
We’re delighted to be celebrating this partnership work and all that has been achieved through this project. These improved coastal defences, fronted by saltmarsh, deliver much needed local climate change adaptation and provide invaluable new wildlife habitat close to Britain’s most important single river estuary for birds.
Work at Hesketh Outmarsh East has involved strengthening and raising the height of 2km of flood banks. This has reduced the flood risk to more than 140 properties and 300 hectares of prime farmland nearby. This is known as ‘managed realignment’, and is one of the largest schemes of its kind in the UK.
Emma Howard Boyd, Chair of the Environment Agency, said:
Hesketh is a win, win scenario – a fantastic scheme which not only works with nature to reduce flood risk but also brings benefits to the wider environment and local communities. Through partnership working we can achieve more and Hesketh proves that.
This release includes measures installed under the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) and the Green Deal schemes. It also includes further analysis and geographical breakdowns of ECO measures, ECO delivery costs, estimated carbon and energy savings from measures installed and the supply chain. These statistics are provisional and are subject to future revisions.
The CMA has accepted proposals to resolve competition concerns in the merger of Solera Holdings, Inc. and Autodata Publishing Group Limited.
The companies are the 2 main suppliers of data services for mechanics across the UK. Garages and workshops use this data to help diagnose, service and repair vehicles.
The companies compete closely with each other meaning that, if the merger had gone ahead as planned, garages could see prices rise or a drop in the quality of their service.
In response to these concerns, Solera offered to sell its vehicle repair and maintenance information platforms to HaynesPro, a buyer approved in advance by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). It also offered to provide transitional support to the buyer. The authority assessed Solera’s remedies offer and opened a public consultation.
Following this public consultation, and after the CMA approved the sale agreement between Solera and HaynesPro, it has now accepted Solera’s remedies proposal.
Solera and Autodata Publishing Group Limited are now free to progress their merger, which will not be referred for an in-depth (‘phase 2’) investigation.
All information relating to this investigation can be found on the case page.