Small improvements made for staff with a disability
The experience of disabled staff in our hospitals and offices is gradually improving thanks to the dedicated efforts of volunteers in the BartsAbility network.
The latest survey shows colleagues with disabilities are more likely to be supported than before and less likely to be disadvantaged compared to non-disabled staff.
These welcome changes in the Workforce Disability Equality Standards report 2023-24 [docx] 733KB are a tribute to the resilience of the BartsAbility network, which celebrated its tenth anniversary last year.
Following a disappointing set of scores last year [pdf] 1MB, our WDES report for 2023/24 showed encouraging improvement in ten out of the 13 metrics measured.
For example, colleagues with a disability are no longer less likely to be appointed to posts after shortlisting, or pressured to attend work when unwell.
Almost two-thirds now receive adjustments to help them carry out their work, and an increasing number feel there are equal opportunities for career progression.
Although there was also a small increase in the proportion that feel the organisation values their work, this remains uncomfortably low at just 31%.
Andrew Hines, director of group development and executive sponsor for BartsAbility, said: “There are some clear improvements where we have focussed our efforts over the past year, but the data continues to show that disabled colleagues still face barriers that colleagues without a disability do not. We must accelerate our work to make a difference in the things that matter to people.”
The WDES report shows a doubling in the representation of disabled people, to 4.2% of the workforce. This is based what colleagues declare on the Electronic Staff Record as opposed to the 19% who anonymously tell the staff survey they have a disability.
Unfortunately the ESR does not capture declarations for staff who joined before 2019, and does not yet have an option to declare neurodivergence. However it does show a rise in disabled representation at senior level, with over 5% at 8a and above.
Levels of bullying and harassment of disabled colleagues continue to decline, as more staff feel able to report unacceptable behaviour. Yet the incidence is still too high, with one third of disabled colleagues reporting bullying from the public, 22% from managers and 30% from other staff.
BartsAbility is promoting a Safe to Share campaign to persuade more colleagues to declare their disability on ESR and encourage managers to create the conditions in which they feel safe to do so.
We are also setting up a new cross-trust group to oversee an action plan to tackle these outstanding issues, including developing a formal disability policy to guide managers about accessing training and support.