Employment: Neurodiversity

The Department provides a range of employment support for autistic and ADHD people, including those who require ongoing practical support to obtain and sustain employment.

Our specialist, voluntary, Supported Employment programme, Connect to Work, is for anyone who is disabled, has a health condition or is experiencing non-health related barriers to work. Connect to Work has a specialist pathway for neurodivergent and learning-disabled participants, using the well-evidenced Supported Employment Quality Framework (SEQF). The programme is locally led and will support around 300,000 people by the end of the decade.

In Jobcentres around 1,000 (full time equivalent) Pathways to Work Advisers, provide personalised one-to-one support to disabled and neurodivergent customers, and those with health conditions to help customers identify and overcome obstacles which may stop them from moving towards or into work or to access employment and wider skills support, and our employment programmes.

Practical workplace support is also available through Access to Work, a demand-led, personalised discretionary grant delivered across Great Britain. It supports workplace adjustments that go beyond an employer’s responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010. The scheme is available to people with disabilities or health conditions, including neurodivergent conditions, where these affect their ability to work.

Alongside support for individuals, DWP administers the GB-wide Disability Confident scheme, encouraging employers to create disability inclusive workplaces and to support disabled people to get work and get on in work. It provides employers with the knowledge, skills, and confidence they need to attract, recruit, retain and develop disabled people in the workplace.

In 2025, DWP launched an independent advisory panel of academics with expertise and lived experiences of neurodiversity to consider the reasons why neurodivergent people often have poor experiences in the workplace, and a low overall employment rate. DWP has received a final version of the Panel’s report which will be published alongside our response in due course. In addition, between January and March this year, DWP funded the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service to run a limited series of neurodivergence masterclasses for employers to attend free of charge. This was to address employer and line manager skill and confidence in recruiting and supporting neurodivergent individuals at work. Over 1,800 representatives of employers attended these masterclasses.