{"id":78146,"date":"2025-11-19T09:44:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T09:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/?page_id=78146"},"modified":"2026-04-02T11:03:01","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T10:03:01","slug":"sir-charlie-mayfield-joins-uks-leading-disability-charities-and-businesses-to-keep-britain-working","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/press-releases\/employment\/sir-charlie-mayfield-joins-uks-leading-disability-charities-and-businesses-to-keep-britain-working\/","title":{"rendered":"Sir Charlie Mayfield joins UK\u2019s leading disability charities and businesses to Keep Britain Working\u202f"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

18 November 2025<\/strong> \u2013 Today, nine of the UK\u2019s leading disability charities,\u202fwhich form the Disability Charities Consortium (DCC), rallied together\u202fwith large businesses, HR\u202fprofessionals\u202fand\u202fdisability experts\u202fto explore\u202fways\u202fto\u202funlock opportunities and\u202fmake workplaces more inclusive for\u202fdisabled people.\u202f\u202f\u202f <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sir Charlie Mayfield, who recently\u202fpublished the\u202findependent review\u202f\u2018Keep Britain Working\u2019,\u202fgave a keynote speech\u202fat the event which was held at Amazon\u2019s Headquarters in London.\u202fSir Charlie outlined his findings and next steps for his review. Delegates then heard first-hand accounts from disabled\u202fpeople about\u202ftheir experience, both positive and negative,\u202fof employment\u202fwith panel discussions addressing the types of adaptations\u202fwhich\u202fhelp drive change.\u202f\u202f\u202f <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\u202fsummit\u202falso\u202ffeatured\u202fa presentation from Microsoft\u202fand workshops equipping attendees with ideas to\u202fcrack the disability employment\u202fgap.\u202fPractical insights were shared on how\u202femployers\u202fcan unlock opportunities\u202fand\u202fcreate\u202fa working environment which is diverse and accessible for all.\u202f\u202f\u202f <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u202f\u202fMark Gale, Policy Manager at Sense, who attended the summit, said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDisabled people are all too often forced to leave the workplace because they don\u2019t get the support and equipment they need. The wasted talent, frustration and financial strain this creates is immense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe \u2018Keep Britain Working\u2019 report\u2019s focus on encouraging employers to improve how they support disabled employees, helping more stay in work, is sensible and long overdue. But progress won\u2019t happen without government action too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe government must reverse any plans to cut funding for Access to Work and tackle the backlogs and delays that make it less effective. The government must also recognise that cutting welfare benefits will only add to financial insecurity and anxiety, making it even harder for people to focus on finding or keeping a job. Real progress requires investment in support, not cuts to essential lifelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot everyone is able to work, but for those who could, a joined-up effort – where employers and government work with disabled people to provide the right support and open up opportunities – would be truly transformative. Sense is delighted to work alongside other charities supporting disabled people through the Disability Charities Consortium to share knowledge, insight and best practice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Hodgkinson, Chief Executive at Scope and Co-chair of the Disability Charities Consortium, said:\u202f\u201cIt\u2019s vital that employers have the tools and the confidence to support disabled people to stay in work and get back into work. The Disability Charities Consortium is delighted to have joined up with employers and Sir Charlie\u2019s team to make this happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diane Lightfoot, Chief Executive at the Business Disability Forum and, Co-chair of the Disability Charities Consortium, said:\u202f\u201cWe know that lots of employers want to do more to recruit and retain disabled employees but don\u2019t know where to begin. We\u2019ve set up this breakfast roundtable to provide practical hints and tips to those just starting out and an opportunity to learn from and share what works with their peers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DCC will continue to work with the Government to move forward with a cross-governmental strategy to increase access and take-up of employment programmes focused on disabled people.\u202f\u202f <\/p>\n\n\n\n

RNIB have specialists who can help organisations implement practices which enables them to become an inclusive employer for anyone with sight loss. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To find out more, please email the RNIB Employment Team at: VisiblyBetterEmployer@rnib.org.uk<\/a> or visit www.rnib.org.uk\/VisiblyBetterEmployer<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notes to editors\u202f\u202f\u202f\u202f\u202f\u202f\u202f\u202f<\/strong>\u202f <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For all media queries about the event, please contact Gorki Duhra, RNIB PR Manager, 07732 405825\u202f\u202f\u202f <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event\u202ftook place at Amazon\u2019s London Headquarters in Shoreditch.\u202f\u202f\u202f \u202f <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Disability Charities Consortium (DCC)\u202fbrings together CEOs and policy-leads from nine of the UK\u2019s leading not-for-profit disability organisations.\u202fThe consortium works to improve how\u202fdisabled people\u2019s experiences are reflected in UK policy making, by working collaboratively to influence Government.\u202f\u202f\u202f\u202f  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DCC members are:\u202f\u202f\u202fBusiness Disability Forum (BDF), Leonard Cheshire, National Autistic Society, Mencap, Mind, Royal National Society for Deaf people (RNID), Royal National Institute of Blind People\u202f(RNIB), Scope\u202fand Sense.\u202f\u202f\u202f <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business Disability Forum jointly chairs the DCC with Scope.\u202f\u202f <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n

Contact Sense’s media team<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Email: <\/strong>mediaenquiries@sense.org.uk<\/a>
Phone number: <\/strong>0203 833 0611<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

18 November 2025 \u2013 he met with nine of the UK\u2019s leading disability charities,\u202fwhich form the Disability Charities Consortium (DCC)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":352,"featured_media":78147,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1396],"tags":[],"display_author":[],"class_list":["post-78146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-employment"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78146"},{"taxonomy":"display_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/display_author?post=78146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}