HPMA publishes DNDN co-founder’s article on addressing the NHS staff disability gap

The Healthcare People Management Association has published an article by Tom Hayhoe, a founder member of the DNDN, in its August newsletter.  The article highlights the degree of underrepresentation of disabled people in the NHS workforce overall and in leadership roles in particular.  It also suggests the NHS employers need to:

• Understand that ‘reasonable adjustments’ are not just physical but need to involve changes in behaviour in line managers, colleagues and employers.
• Involvement of disabled colleagues in the assessment of need and the design of the “reasonable adjustments”.
• Shift the employment paradigm that places the onus on the disabled person to ’prove’ they can ‘do the job’, to one where the onus is on the employer to enable the disabled person to ‘do a job’
• Train line managers and colleagues of disabled employees to understand disability particularly in relation hidden disabilities
• Recognise that many disabling conditions are progressive and there should be provision for regular reassessment of reasonable adjustments
• Budget for the resources required to provide physical ‘reasonable adjustments’ and training, holding them centrally rather than in individual department