European Commission promotes employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

In April, the European Commission presented the final measures of the Disability Employment Package, a set of initiatives aimed at improving the employment prospects of people with disabilities. The package is one of seven flagship initiatives under the Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2021–2030. The newly published measures include, among other things, guidelines on vocational rehabilitation, targeting organisations active in vocational training and rehabilitation, as well as employers and public employment services.

Contents of the guidelines

The guidelines are intended to provide recommendations for vocational rehabilitation to a wide target audience – including individuals with common illnesses and typical accident-related impairments, as well as people with disabilities or additional support needs. Specifically, the guidelines offer recommendations for various stakeholders, including social security institutions, on implementing effective rehabilitation measures at different stages of the rehabilitation process. They also outline the legal and policy frameworks at international, European and national levels, as well as relevant resources and information on funding structures. Finally, they identify success factors for effective national rehabilitation policies.

Vocational rehabilitation as a social investment

The guidelines begin by highlighting, with reference to various studies, the return on investment and economic benefits of vocational rehabilitation. There is strong evidence that proactive workplace measures in cases of illness – combined with temporarily adjusted tasks and accommodations – are cost-efficient. Such measures can reduce sickness-related absences by 20 to 60 percent. A Swedish study estimates the return on investment for vocational rehabilitation at a ratio of 10:1. Coordinated vocational rehabilitation achieves better outcomes than comparable services and results in savings of 6,000 euro per person per year. Preventive measures to eliminate hazards or reduce occupational accidents and diseases are considered particularly cost-effective.

Guidance on implementing vocational rehabilitation

The main section of the guidelines provides practical instructions for implementing effective vocational rehabilitation, aimed at the lead actor in the process, such as the responsible social security institution. According to the guidelines, an effective rehabilitation process is based on early, person-centred and strengths-based support. This support should combine qualification, counselling and individual guidance. Key success factors include close cooperation among all involved stakeholders, the development and regular updating of individual support plans and the implementation of appropriate workplace accommodations. The goal is to enable sustainable participation in working life through practical skills training, targeted counselling and suitable working conditions.

Information on the data basis of the guidelines

The guidelines draw on materials from the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA), desk research and stakeholder contributions collected via the European Commission’s Disability Platform and the European Platform for Rehabilitation network. Based on these sources, the guidelines reference five country case studies used to identify success factors for effective national rehabilitation policy, including Germany. A more detailed account of the five national contexts is provided in Annex I.

German example: RehaFuturReal

In the context of the German case study, the guidelines refer to the pilot projects RehaFuturReal I and II, which were tested in 2013 and 2014 by the German Pension Insurance Westphalia (Deutsche Rentenversicherung Westfalen). Both projects were based on the outcomes of the nationwide RehaFutur initiative, launched in 2009 by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs to develop forward-looking, innovative recommendations for vocational rehabilitation. The aim of the projects was to optimise the advisory services provided by specialised rehabilitation counsellors as key actors in the rehabilitation process in order to improve the reintegration of employees into their previous workplace or, where that was not possible, into a new one.