Disability and Employment Policy

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2. Eligibility

This Policy applies to all:

• Applicants for University jobs.
• Employees and workers (including casual workers and those engaged via the Temporary Employment Service).

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3. Definitions 

This Policy uses the terms disabled applicant, disabled person and disabled employee. However, it is acknowledged that individuals may prefer different ways of describing themselves and their circumstances. An employee’s preferred terms should be used.

Impairment or Related Conditions – An individual’s physical, sensory or cognitive difference (e.g. visual impairment, bipolar, neurodivergent, having multiple sclerosis or a learning difference). Not all impairments or related conditions are readily identifiable, e.g. some mental health conditions, energy-limiting conditions and neurodivergence are often more hidden forms of disability.

Barriers are factors in society that disabled people with impairments or conditions experience. Examples in the workplace include:

• Physical barriers, such as inaccessible workspaces or inappropriate equipment. 
• Attitudinal barriers, such as assumptions about a person’s impairment and what they can and can’t do.
• Information and communication barriers, including information not being provided in accessible formats. 

Removing or reducing barriers reduces their negative impact on a disabled person. The Equality Act and this Policy both focus on removing and reducing barriers experienced by disabled people.

Disability – A person is disabled under the legal definition in the Equality Act if they have a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ negative effect on their ability to do normal daily activities. 

• Substantial means more than minor or trivial e.g. it takes much longer than it usually would to complete a daily task like getting dressed. 
• Long-term means lasting or likely to last for 12 months or more. 
• Normal daily activities include a person’s ability to participate fully and effectively in working life on an equal basis to others. 

This definition can cover a wide variety of conditions including:

• Mental health conditions, e.g. depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder.
• Long-term conditions, e.g. epilepsy, diabetes, arthritis, autoimmune conditions.
• Physical conditions, e.g. visual impairments, multiple sclerosis (MS), cerebral palsy, spinal cord injuries.
• Musculoskeletal conditions, such as back or neck conditions, or Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSI).
• Neurodivergence, e.g. dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD and autism. 

An individual does not need a formal diagnosis for the Equality Act to apply. An individual is automatically covered from the point they are diagnosed with HIV, cancer or multiple sclerosis. Recurring and fluctuating conditions may be covered. For further information see Definition of disability under the Equality Act 2010 and the Government’s Equality Act Guidance.

The legal definition is provided for information, but the focus of this policy is on supporting employees and removing barriers.

Adjustments are measures that prevent, reduce or remove barriers for disabled people. Adjustments include making changes to:

• The recruitment process.
• The workplace environment or location. 
• Working arrangements. 
• The way tasks are done.
• The way work is scheduled.
• How an employment policy is applied e.g. applying greater flexibility beyond the standard policy provisions. 
• Equipment e.g. providing assistive technology or equipment.
• Assistive software e.g. screen reading software or speech to text software.

Workplace adjustments – This Policy uses the term “workplace adjustments” to refer to the University’s legal obligation to remove or reduce a disadvantage in the workplace related to someone’s disability including where the University could reasonably be expected to know that someone is disabled. Workplace adjustments funded by the University must be reasonable as defined below. Adjustments that go beyond what are reasonable may be funded by Access to Work (see section 7.1).

Reasonable – There is no exact legal definition of what constitutes reasonable when considering adjustments. The factors that influence whether an adjustment is considered reasonable are: 

• The size and resources of the organisation. 
• What is practical – considering the core nature of the employee’s role and team.
• The cost of making an adjustment.
• How effective an adjustment will be at reducing or removing a barrier.
• Whether there is external support or funding available (e.g. through schemes such as Access to Work), which may influence what is reasonable.
• The extent of disruption the adjustment might cause to the department or other staff e.g. changes to work arrangements, duties, or the workplace that affect operations.
• The individual circumstances of the employee and the nature of their disability, because even people with similar disabilities may need different adjustments depending on their specific needs and working context.

Workplace adjustments should not put the health and safety of the individual or others at risk. Workplace adjustments must balance wellbeing with operational needs without compromising service delivery.

Manager – The term manager is used throughout this Policy. However, it is recognised that in some cases it may be appropriate for steps attributed to a manager to be delegated to another appropriate person.  

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4. Recruitment

Recruitment will be conducted based on merit and against objective criteria that avoid discrimination. For further information, please refer to the University's Recruitment Policy. This details steps that will be taken when recruiting to ensure that the recruitment process is inclusive and does not exclude or discourage disabled people from participating in the recruitment process.

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5. Policy Statement

During employment the following Policy principles apply:

• Employees are encouraged to tell their manager if they are experiencing barriers to work related to disability.
• Managers should aim to create a working environment that allows disabled employees in their team to feel able to discuss barriers to work and workplace adjustments. 
• Workplace adjustments will be considered for all disabled employees where needed in a timely manner.
• Workplace adjustments must be reasonable for the employee’s work and role.
• Heads of Institutions and Heads of Departments are ultimately responsible for ensuring that reasonable workplace adjustments are made where required, and that the University is complying with the legal requirements of the Equality Act.
• Manager training is available to equip managers with the information and skills needed to manage situations relating to disability.  
• Disabled employees will have equal access to development opportunities and internal vacancies, with workplace adjustments considered where needed. 
• Redeployment may be considered in situations where a disabled employee is no longer able to undertake their role and only after workplace adjustments have been fully considered (see the Redeployment Framework). 
• Where appropriate, and with the employee’s consent, ill-health retirement will be explored. 

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6. Procedure

6.1 When to consider and discuss workplace adjustments 

A manager should check whether workplace adjustments need to be considered in the following situations:

• During recruitment after the offer stage, hiring managers should ask a candidate after they have made a conditional offer if they have any accessibility needs to undertake the role that would require consideration of workplace adjustments. This gives the manager time to put in place any agreed adjustments from the start of employment and allows an individual to access the higher level of Access to Work funding that is available for new employees (see section 7.1). A candidate may not have indicated on their application that they are disabled. It is therefore best practice to speak to all preferred candidates, after making a conditional offer, about accessibility needs and reassure them that this information is not used to make a selection decision. As part of the offer process new employees will be asked to complete a OHF30 Work Health Declaration form which will enable OH to make recommendations to support the employee if required
• If an existing employee develops or is diagnosed with a long-term condition or starts to experience a barrier to work related to disability.    
• If an existing employee tells their manager that they are disabled (when they have not previously shared this). 
• Where an employee returns to work following long-term absence or has high levels of short-term or intermittent absence related to a disability.
• When the tasks, responsibilities or focus of a disabled employee’s role change, to check if there are now barriers to undertaking the role that were not previously experienced.
• When there are concerns that an employee’s disability could be affecting their ability to perform their duties.

6.2 Workplace Adjustments Plan 

The University uses a Workplace Adjustments Plan to help managers and disabled employees have effective discussions about adjustments. This includes prompt questions to identify barriers to work and explore adjustments that could reduce or remove these barriers and that can be reasonably put in place.

An employee may have ideas about adjustments that could help them or share details of what has worked for them in a previous workplace or education setting. Where an employee has recently become disabled, they may be going through a process of learning about their condition and may not know what adjustments would be appropriate.

The Workplace Adjustments Examples document covers a range of issues that an employee may be experiencing at work and provides suggestions for adjustments that could be considered.  These are not prescriptive but are a starting point to help employees and managers discuss workplace adjustments. Suggested adjustments need to be tailored based on an employee’s circumstances and the requirements of their job and need to be reasonable. Employees with the same condition may require different workplace adjustments.  For example, in the case of hearing impairment or related condition, a hearing loop would be appropriate for an employee who uses a hearing aid but not for an employee who lip reads. Managers should avoid making assumptions about the barriers experienced by a disabled person

The additional information section on the Workplace Adjustments Plan can be used to document any other relevant information. This could include strengths related to an employee’s lived experience that could contribute to their role, e.g. understanding of students/customer accessibility needs, ability to communicate in sign language, creative thinking or problem-solving abilities. 

6.3 Deciding if a workplace adjustment is reasonable 

When determining whether an adjustment is reasonable a manager needs to consider:

• the employee's needs;
• the core requirements of the job role; and
• the operational requirements. 

It can help to focus on the core nature of an employee’s job role and the outputs needed and to think creatively about how an employee can deliver these outputs. This could include different ways of undertaking tasks, considering when and where work is undertaken and the use of technology or equipment. For example, where teaching is a core requirement of an employee’s role adjustments should focus on how to support the employee to do this, removing the requirement to teach is unlikely to be a reasonable workplace adjustment.

See the supporting information for questions to consider when deciding if a workplace adjustment is reasonable. 

Many adjustments are low cost, e.g. varying working patterns or scheduling of work, providing a footrest or more appropriate computer mouse. Access to Work funding may be available in some situations to put in place adjustments that go beyond what is considered reasonable, see section 7.1.

6.4 Seeking advice

In some cases, a manager can agree and implement workplace adjustments without the need for further advice, e.g. change to working hours, ways of working, purchase of simple equipment. A manager can ask their HR contact, the HR Business Partnering team or their Departmental Safety Officer (DSO) for advice about workplace adjustments.

Where specialist input is needed, a manager can make a management referral to Occupational Health (OH) who will recommend workplace adjustments for the manager to consider. This is appropriate if adjustments that have already been implemented have not been effective or in cases where recommendations are needed about what type of adjustments would be appropriate.  The manager and employee should complete the Workplace Adjustments Plan before making a referral to OH to provide information to help inform their recommendations.     

6.5 External advice

The University is a member of the Business Disability Forum (BDF).  This gives managers access to a comprehensive range of resources about all aspects of support for disabled employees including information on specific conditions (see the BDF Website and register with a cam.ac.uk email address). Managers can contact the BDF Advice Service to speak to a specialist adviser who can provide tailored guidance and answer specific questions. The BDF Advice Service can be contracted on 020 7089 2400 or advice@businessdisabilityforum.org.uk.

6.6 Documenting workplace adjustments 

The completed Workplace Adjustments Plan is a record of agreed adjustments. The manager and employee should retain a copy of this plan ensuring that it is held securely in accordance with GDPR. The Workplace Adjustments Plan will only be shared with other parties once this has been discussed and agreed upon by the employee. Details of workplace adjustments are not centrally recorded. 

6.7 Alternative contact 

There may be situations where an employee does not feel able to have a conversation with their manager about barriers that they are experiencing at work. As an alternative, an employee can choose to speak to their local HR contact, the HR Business Partnering Team or Departmental Administrator in the first instance. The alternative contact will check with the employee what information, if any, they are comfortable being shared with their manager e.g. where a manager needs to be involved in considering workplace adjustments. It is important to note that managers can only make decisions based on what they know and so staff should make their line manager aware of all relevant information. HR and Departmental Administrators are not responsible for day-to-day management.

6.8 Implementing workplace adjustments 

Once a workplace adjustment is agreed, managers should aim to implement the adjustment as soon as reasonably practicable and ideally within 14 working days unless specialist equipment is required.

Managers should keep employees updated on the progress of putting in place adjustments. If an employee is unable to work because they are waiting for workplace adjustments to be put in place, managers should discuss any interim arrangements that need to be made until adjustments are arranged. This may include temporary changes to the employee’s job role or working location.

In the same way an employee should keep their manager updated in an employee led action that has been deemed a workplace adjustment, e.g. Access to Work application or changes to their workstation on remote working days.

6.9 Reviewing adjustments 

An employee’s Workplace Adjustments Plan should be reviewed periodically (at least every 12 months) and where there has been a change in an employee’s situation or the requirements of their role. Workplace adjustments should be amended as needed.  The Workplace Adjustments Plan is portable internally between roles. An employee and their new manager should review this document as a starting point for considering what adjustments are needed in the new role.   

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7. Support

7.1 Access to Work funding

An employee can apply for Access to Work for funding of support that goes beyond those that the University can otherwise reasonably put in place. Access to Work does not provide support but provides a grant to reimburse the cost of the support that an employee needs. Access to Work will consider paying a grant for 100% of the costs for employees that have worked for the University for less than 6 weeks at the point of application. The University may be required to share the cost for Access to Work funding if an employee has been employed for more than 6 weeks when they apply for funding.  An individual can apply for Access to Work funding up to 6 weeks before they start work. Access to Work prioritise applications from individuals due to start in the next four weeks. See the Access to Work Factsheet for Employers for further information.  Please note that there can be lengthy wait times for Access to Work assessments and decisions.   

7.2 Access to Work Mental Health Support Service

This is a free service provided for the Government by Maximus and Able Futures.  Support is available to any employee that has a mental health concern that is impacting on their work. Support includes up to 9 months’ coaching with a mental health coach. Employees can apply directly for support, or a manager can also make a referral on behalf of an employee if they agree to this. A referral to this service should be considered in any situation where an employee is experiencing mental health difficulties.    

7.3 Dignity at Work

If an employee has experienced inappropriate behaviour related to their disability, e.g. bullying, harassment or discrimination, they should refer to the University’s Dignity at Work Policy for details of how to raise this.  

7.4 Disabled Staff Network

The Disabled Staff Network is a support network for disabled people and those with long-term conditions who work for the University, colleges and other associated institutions, including PhD students. The focus of the network is to provide peer support. The network also welcomes allies who want to know more about how to support disabled colleagues. 

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8. Redeployment by reason of disability 

Members of the University and University staff are expected to be aware of these guidelines and to treat those with disabilities in accordance with their provisions. The appropriate authority has special responsibility for advising staff on all matters affecting the employment of those with disabilities, for liaison with the Employment Service Disability Employment Advisers and other advisory services, and for promoting a positive approach to the employment of people with disabilities throughout the University.

9. Health and Safety 

Any additional health and safety requirements for a disabled employee need to be considered. A disabled employee may need a personal evacuation plan (PEEP). In some cases, colleagues may need information about what to do in a medical emergency, e.g. if they use an EpiPen and their colleagues need to know where to locate it and how to use it in an emergency. Health and safety arrangements should be kept under review and updated as needed.

10. Review

The Policy will be reviewed within 2 years of the implementation date and then every 4 years. 

For more information, please see Disability and Employment Policy Supporting Information (Annex A).