Employing Disabled People - Why it's good for business?

Workshop
‘Employing Disabled People
– why it’s good for business’
Greater Manchester Social Value Network
Event Friday 8th September 2017

About Breakthrough UK
• Company incorporated in 1997 – ‘not for profit’ social
enterprise (also registered as a charity and a DPO)
• Manchester-based but deliver across GM
• Mission ‘to promote the rights, responsibilities and
respect of Disabled People’ – enable independence of
DP through employment and inform/influence public
policy to ensure equality for DP
• Core services are provision of personalised and
holistic specialist employment related support for DP
who are seeking work
01-09-17 2© Breakthrough UK Ltd
www.breakthrough-uk.co.uk

Context:
• There are 11.9 million Disabled people of
working age in UK population (19% of total WA
pop) but DP are almost as twice likely as non-
DP to be unemployed
• Table exercise - why do you think is this the
case?
01-09-17 © Breakthrough UK Ltd
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Table exercise -
from your experience as an employer what
prevents you from employing disabled people?
4

Breakthrough Employment services portfolio:-
• Personalised Employment & Training Service
for Disabled People (on behalf of Mcr CC)
• Pathways Programme - Employability skills
training for long term unemployed people in GM
who experience multiple barriers to employment
• Journey to Employment Programme – specialist
support for long term unemployed people with
impairments and/or long term health conditions
JCP customers (on behalf of DWP)
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Apply & promote the Social Model of Disability:
• people are disabled by barriers created by
society not by their impairment or health
condition
• see the person (and their capabilities) not the
impairment
• identify and remove barriers to employment
• don’t see someone’s impairment as the problem
to be fixed
• don’t make assumptions
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Employer Good Practice and outcomes for
Breakthrough UK
• 50% of our employees are Disabled people with
a wide range of impairments and fluctuating long
term health conditions
• High staff retention rate supports business
continuity and ensures low recruitment and
training costs
• Highly motivated workforce
• High levels of customer satisfaction
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Employers’ Statutory duties under Equality Act
2010
• duty not to discriminate against individuals with
‘Protected Characteristics’
• duty to consider requests from Disabled
Employees for ‘Reasonable Adjustments’
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What are ‘Reasonable Adjustments’?
• Adjustments made by employer to workplace,
work practices or job role to remove barriers
and/or ensure DP has appropriate support to
fulfil job requirements.
• Often, RAs are simple and incur little, if any, cost
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What are ‘Reasonable Adjustments’?
examples include:-
• physical adaptations to workplace - access
• provision of specialist aids or equipment – height
adjustment work station, orthopaedic chair,
screen readers/zoom software, voice recognition
software etc
• personal assistance in the workplace
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more examples of ‘Reasonable Adjustments’
• travel to/in work
• adjustments to working patterns/hours (the most
common RA request by disabled employees)
Where RAs do incur cost, the Government’s
Access To Work Scheme will usually pay for
these (subject to eligibility criteria)
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Business case for employment of DP
• 11.9 million DP represents 19% of the UK
population with spending power of £249 billion
per annum – can your business afford to miss
out on this market opportunity?
• Disabled employees can contribute to your
business’s understanding of the market and the
needs of potential disabled customers – are you
missing out on valuable market intelligence?
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• Disabled people experience discrimination and
barriers to employment – when they get into
employment they make loyal and hardworking
employees
• Exploding the myths – disabled employees are
not likely to have more sickness absence than
non-disabled employees
16

• 5 in 6 employees who become disabled while in
work are able to sustain their employment
beyond the first year after becoming disabled,
with or without reasonable adjustments
Question: why would you not make a reasonable
adjustment for a new employee?
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What can you do to increase inclusion of
Disabled People in your workforce?
• offer work experience placements to disabled
jobseekers (‘buddy up’ with a local Disabled
Peoples organisation)
• be willing to make adjustments to recruitment
procedures, eg offer work trials or working
interviews so that applicants can demonstrate
their ability to do the job
19

What can you do to increase inclusion of
Disabled People in your workforce?
• invite (ie don’t wait to be asked!) applicants to
request ‘reasonable adjustments’ in selection
process/interviews
• use routine supervision meetings and/or
performance reviews to ask if employees wish to
request any RAs (many health conditions
fluctuate & temporary RAs may help employee
to sustain performance levels)
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Case study – Rebecca, Breakthrough client
• Rebecca has a degree & prior work experience
• Rebecca had a negative experience with her last
employer in respect of her request for RA which
led to redundancy and severely undermined her
confidence/self belief
• Rebecca secured a new job as a Junior
Business Analyst in June 2016, RAs (provision
of adaptive software) made by employer have
enabled her to sustain her employment
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Case study – Robert, Breakthrough client
• Robert is unable to travel on public transport as
he easily gets disoriented and anxious in crowds
(and has been victim of Disability Hate Crime)
• Robert secured job offer for job at a supermarket
some distance from his home
• Robert made an application to Government’s
Access To Work Scheme which pays for cost of
private taxis to/from work (Robert has sustained
job for 3 years to date)
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Case study – Chrissie, Breakthrough client
• Chrissie had not worked since leaving statutory
education when she was referred to
Breakthrough aged 23 years
• Chrissie has poor literacy and numeracy skills
so her Breakthrough adviser negotiated a work
trial for her in a City Centre restaurant
• Chrissie was offered the job and has recently
completed her 3rd year with this employer
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Case studies – Breakthrough employees
• P - has regular mentoring sessions with a work
coach and smartphone app to help her to
manage her LT MH condition paid for by ATW
• Y - has a height adjustable work station and
uses adaptive software paid for by ATW to
enable use of desktop computer
• B - has a daily visit to workplace by a PA for
personal care needs paid for by ATW
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Want help? Disabled Peoples Organisations in
your area, including Breakthrough, will probably be
keen to support you to include Disabled People in
your workforce
Just get in touch admin@breakthrough-uk.co.uk
tel 0161 234 3950
and Keep in touch www.breakthrough-uk.co.uk
twitter @BUKCommunity
facebook @BreakthroughUKLtd
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Further guidance for employers:
• Disability Confident Toolkit
www.gov.uk/government/collections/disability-confident-campaign
• Govt’s Access to Work Scheme – meets cost of RAs and/or
access/support needs of disabled employees (subject to conditions)
www.gov.uk/government/publications/access-to-work-guide-for-
employers/access-to-work-factsheet-for-employers
• www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/multipage-guide/employing-
people-workplace-adjustments
• www.gov.uk/government/publications/employing-disabled-people-
and-people-with-health-conditions/employing-disabled-people-and-
people-with-health-conditions
Disclaimer – referring employers to the above resources does not imply
endorsement of them or their content by Breakthrough UK
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