Take an inclusive approach to workplace health - Principles to support disabled workers and workers with long-term health conditions in work

This page describes best practice. It does not explain the law

3. Take an inclusive approach to workplace health

Inclusive workplace practices will help you recruit, retain and make the most of the abilities of disabled workers and those with long-term health conditions. We will refer to both as 'workers' in this guidance.

In your business, workplace practices are inclusive:

policies
procedures
arrangements
rules

Workplace practices which are inclusive can provide business benefits. These include increased productivity, a bigger talent pool, greater creativity and innovation.

Design an inclusive workplace

Design your workplace so it is inclusive to everyone who accesses it, for example workers and sub-contractors.Make sure nobody is at a disadvantage. Everyone should be able to deliver their work effectively, safely and efficiently. Any changes can be appropriate to the size of your business.

Provide accessible workplace practices

Your workplace practices need to be:

accessible
clear
concise
easy for all of your workers to understand

They should help you identify, understand and address workplace barriers.

Apply practices consistently and fairly. Modifications can vary. An example of an appropriate modification could be disability leave or flexible working. Provide timely responses to requests for workplace adjustments. For example acknowledge them within two weeks.

Monitor and review workplace practices. This can help ensure you apply them appropriately, proportionately and they remain fit for purpose.

Example

A manager wanted her preschool nursery to be accessible to everyone. She did not want to exclude any of her customers or staff, even though none of her staff had told her about having any disabilities or long-term health conditions.

What changed

She created an accessibility policy for the business. She particularly thought about physical access to the preschool. She considered the use of doors and windows, and implemented a clear floor policy. She decided that all her notices and written text would be in an Easyread format.

The benefits

A partially sighted worker joined the preschool. He was able to access all the facilities and spaces at the nursery. His induction as a new member of staff was straightforward too because all the reading material was in an Easyread format. The partially sighted worker quickly became an invaluable member of the team and thrived in his role.

Raise awareness and promote inclusive practices

Role modelling and disability champions can endorse inclusive practices.

Raise awareness of internal and external support available through health promotion activities. This could include:

training on stress management
visibility of your peer support networks

Provide additional advice

If you need help to develop a solution to a complex situation, you could access competent advice.

This could come from:

the Access to Work scheme^[9]
employee advice schemes
HR
an occupational health provider

Access to Work

Access to Work can help a worker get or stay in work if they have a physical or mental health condition or disability.

The support they get will depend on their needs. Through Access to Work, they can apply for:

a grant to help pay for practical support with work
support with managing mental health at work
money to pay for communication support at job interviews

Template

You can use our template to start a conversation and ask the right questions (PDF) ^[10].

View a printable version of the whole guide^[13]

Link URLs in this page

Overviewhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/disability/best-practice/overview.htm
Create a supportive and enabling workplacehttps://www.hse.gov.uk/disability/best-practice/workplace-culture.htm
Understand the work barriers that impact on workershttps://www.hse.gov.uk/disability/best-practice/understand-barriers.htm
Make suitable workplace adjustments or modificationshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/disability/best-practice/workplace-adjustments.htm
Develop skills, knowledge and understandinghttps://www.hse.gov.uk/disability/best-practice/develop-skills.htm
Use effective and accessible communicationhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/disability/best-practice/accessible-communication.htm
Support sickness absence and return to workhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/disability/best-practice/sickness-absence.htm
The lawhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/disability/best-practice/the-law.htm
Access to Work schemehttps://www.gov.uk/access-to-work
You can use our template to start a conversation and ask the right questionshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/disability/assets/docs/inclusive-approach.pdf
Previous page Create a supportive and enabling workplace https://www.hse.gov.uk/disability/best-practice/workplace-culture.htm
Next page Understand the work barriers that impact on workers https://www.hse.gov.uk/disability/best-practice/understand-barriers.htm
View a printable version of the whole guidehttps://www.hse.gov.uk/disability/best-practice/print.htm

Principles to support disabled workers and workers with long-term health conditions in work

3. Take an inclusive approach to workplace health

Design an inclusive workplace

Provide accessible workplace practices

Example

How a manager focused on physical access and improved recruitment

Raise awareness and promote inclusive practices

Provide additional advice

Access to Work

Template

Link URLs in this page