Osaka City’s Initiatives for Implementing the Support Program for Employment Choices

Welfare for Persons with Disabilities Department, Osaka City 

Introduction

To enable persons with disabilities to make better choices regarding their workplace and working style, a new employment-related welfare service for persons with disabilities called the Support Program for Employment Choices will be established in October 2025. This service aims to support persons with disabilities in making choices aligned with their preferences, work abilities, aptitudes, and other factors by utilizing employment assessment methods.

Regarding the Support Program for Employment Choices, the basic policy is to provide opportunities for short-term productive activities, to assess aptitude, knowledge, and abilities related to employment, clarify employment intentions, and identify necessary accommodations. Based on the assessment results, a case conference involving persons with disabilities and relevant parties is held through multi-agency collaboration to support the person’s decision-making ability regarding employment. The Support Program for Employment Choices is closely tied to the future employment and working styles of persons with disabilities who wish to work. The Program is expected to play a specialized, neutral role. Osaka City is committed to ensuring the smooth implementation of this program to facilitate the appropriate service utilization and support for persons with disabilities.

Osaka City’s Initiatives

In Osaka City, along with an aging population, as well as efforts to promote employment support for persons with disabilities, expenditures on welfare services for persons with disabilities has been increasing year by year. From a sustainability perspective, ensuring and improving the quality of welfare services for persons with disabilities is a key challenge. In March of this year, the city established the Study Team on Ensuring and Improving the Quality of Welfare Services for Persons with Disabilities to examine measures for optimizing benefit expenditures. As far as the expenditures are concerned, the growth in the Continuous Support for Employment costs has been particularly significant. As one measure toward optimization, the city has prioritized efforts for the launching of the Support Program for Employment Choices in October 2025. Consequently, it has begun examining the way to designate service providers for the Support Program for Employment Choices.

“The Implementation of the Support Program for Employment Choices” (Implementation Notice) issued by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in March 2025 states that when designating service providers for the Support Program for Employment Choices, it is desirable to confirm not only the completeness of application forms but also whether the provider can fulfill the role expected of the Program in the region. This should be assessed based on factors such as the objective and philosophy of implementing the Program, the assessment environment, and whether a collaborative framework with the local community has been established. Furthermore, when confirming the establishment of a regional collaboration system and appropriate third-party evaluation during the designation of service providers for the Support Program, the national government provides technical guidance stating that, if deemed necessary by the designating authority, applicants seeking to provide the Support should explain their operational policies and activities to the relevant council or municipality during the application process. They should then receive an evaluation from that council or municipality and submit the details of that evaluation to the prefectural governor.

Based on the recent technical guidance from the national government, Osaka City will ensure quality of service from the initial designation stage (entry point) by considering the objectives of the Support Program for Employment Choices. In addition to documented reviews based on existing standards and ordinances, the city will implement a new mechanism where city staff will gather information on the support policies and other matters from the service provider. City officials will inquire about support policies during these interviews. Furthermore, a new evaluation committee composed of external experts will be convened to gather opinions based on specialized knowledge regarding the service provider’s activities. Based on this process, the city will designate service providers.

Additionally, as for the determination of benefit, although services users may submit their own draft service utilization plans (self-plans) without utilizing planning consultation support, collaboration with planning consultation support providers remain critically important. Therefore, when applying for service benefits, we strongly encourage the use of such support at service counters.

We will continue to ensure and enhance the quality of support for persons with disabilities so that they may receive it with peace of mind in their local communities.