Securing a job when you have a disability can be life-affirming – and creates a more diverse workforce for businesses
Disabled people are more likely to be employed today than they were a decade ago. According to the Labour Force Survey, nearly half of all disabled people of working age are in a job and the gap between the number of non-disabled and disabled people in employment has shrunk by 10% in the past 14 years.
These figures paint an encouraging picture. But individuals, employers and politicians still have barriers to overcome and challenges to meet if the government's target for disabled people to achieve true workplace equality by 2025 is to be met.
Last year, Lloyds Banking Group was named best employer at the national Business Disability Forum awards, which recognise organisations that are "disability smart". The judges said the company "excelled in exemplary workplace adjustments", while its professional – and personal – development programmes for disabled employees were singled out for praise.
Fiona Cannon, Lloyds Banking Group's director of diversity and inclusion, says there is a strong business case for having a diverse workforce. "There are more than 10 million people in the UK with a disability – that is a big market place and it would be foolish for any organisation to ignore that. If we want to be the best bank, and the best bank for disabled customers, we need to have people in the organisation who can help us do that. The only limits on a disabled person are the limits other people put on them."
It is a view shared by minister for disabled people, Esther McVey: "Less than 10% of disabled people have never worked and, in my conversations with disabled people and employers, it's clear a positive attitude from and within businesses is key to supporting disabled people to start and stay in mainstream jobs." McVey cites Sainsbury's and Asda as businesses that are leading the way in recruitment and retention of disabled people. "Disabled people should have the same choice of jobs in every sector, at every level, from hairdressing to engineering and everything in between," she adds.
Lloyds' decision to create development programmes exclusively for its disabled staff chime with research by former disability rights organisation Radar – now part of Disability Rights UK – which found that mentoring and career-long support made it more likely that a disabled person would succeed at work.
But getting a first step on the career ladder is currently the biggest obstacle for young disabled people, says Liz Sayce, chief executive of Disability Rights UK. "It's increasingly difficult to get work experience or that first job," she says. "Work experience generally doesn't attract Access to Work funding and that is a massive disadvantage, and is a real inequality in the system that needs to be addressed."
Although disabled young people are less likely to make it to university, those who do often do well. Around 40,000 disabled people graduate from UK universities each year and, of these, 60% find work within six months – nearly the same number as their non-disabled peers. Susan Scott-Parker, founder and chief executive of the Business Disability Forum, says: "Nine per cent of disabled graduates achieve first-class honours, which explains why many of our companies are now reaching out to them."
Practical barriers
But a lack of understanding about practical barriers to recruitment are preventing many of the UK's top-ranking employers from accessing this graduate talent pool. Scott-Parker says: "We found that 1.3 million disabled people couldn't apply for a job online because 75% of the FTSE 100 websites were inaccessible. If you are a graduate with a first-class honours degree and have dyslexia, you can't even apply because the company's HR and IT people haven't made the recruitment process fully accessible." A "disability confident" employer, according to Scott-Parker, is one whose managers are trained to ask: 'What can I do to make it easier for you to do your job?'
As an associate director at the disability charity Scope, Andy Rickell boosted the number of disabled staff at the organisation from 4% to more than 20% in less than three years. He says the numbers increased because the issue was adopted as a priority by the chief executive. Rickell, who has cerebral palsy, says: "My role was a high priority for the organisation and was led by the chief executive. It was seen as important. The second thing I achieved was to change the way disabled people were seen within the organisation – to be seen as a disabled person was to be seen as a positive. Half of the increase in numbers was down to existing staff identifying themselves as disabled people."
Statistics, however, only tell one part of the story. More than anything, securing employment when you have a disability can be life-affirming.
Dave Thompson, founder of the Disability Awareness Day, which takes place in Warrington tomorrow, was left tetraplegic after an American football accident at the age of 21. Returning to work, he says, was a lifeline. "Employment, even voluntary employment, was the reason I got out of bed and the reason I survived. When I speak to people, very few of them want to pack up work – they want to carry on as long as they can."
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Diversity
Debbie Andalo
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