KMPT secures funding to enhance workplace inclusivity for staff with disabilities

KMPT is proud to have been successful in securing funding from NHS England’s Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES) Awards scheme. This new scheme has been introduced to encourage more people with a disability to join the NHS and develop long and fruitful careers.

KMPT submitted its award entry in the workplace adjustment award category and put forward an idea to improve the process for staff through which they access reasonable adjustments as well supporting managers to understand their responsibilities in this area. 

Helen Glover, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Practitioner (Workforce Lead), has spearheaded KMPT’s new reasonable adjustments pilot scheme which is set to launch in January and run through to March 2024 initially to test the process. The pilot will involve people from across all staff networks and any new starters joining the Trust.

Helen said: “As part of the submission we needed to demonstrate that our plan would improve at least one of the WDES metrics and was aligned to one of the 6 High Impact Actions (HIAs) set out in the NHS EDI Improvement Plan.

“We looked at the WDES metric 8 across the Integrated Care System (ICS) which showed that only 72.2% of staff were given reasonable adjustments. This highlighted a real need for a better approach to improving the way reasonable adjustments are accessed and implemented – hence our pilot at KMPT being launched.” 

What will be different as part of the pilot?

• New policy: a new Reasonable Adjustments Policy has been developed that offers clear guidance for any person making a work place reasonable adjustment request having sought advice and recommendations from the Government run ‘Access to work’ scheme and /or Occupational Health (OH).
• Central budget: a new central budget has been introduced which eliminates the potential for discrimination or local service budget concerns for team/departments/managers.
• One form process: all reasonable adjustment requests will be made using one electronic form by the staff member and can be accessed online on i-connect using the same portable that is used to make IT requests. This will ensure that a clear audit process is established.
• EDI overview of process: in line with the new Reasonable Adjustments Policy, the Equality Diversity and Inclusion team will act as the central point of contact for accessing and processing all reasonable adjustment requests in an open, transparent, fair and timely way.

What do we anticipate the benefits will be?

The Reasonable Adjustments Policy and pilot scheme supports the NHS long term workforce plan and KMPT’s strategic objectives to have more people appropriately supported in a compassionate and inclusive culture, addressing staffing shortfalls and retention by:

• Supporting our commitment to being an anchor institution by growing our diverse workforce and supporting the health of our local communities within Kent and Medway to reduce inequalities and supporting targets set by CORE20PLUS5.
• Having a clear reasonable adjustment process as part of the recruitment process that will improve disability representation and diversity in shortlisted and appointed candidates
• Helping to eliminate pay gaps with respect to disability through providing flexible or hybrid working options.
• Improving the average time taken to facilitate requests, improving staff returning to work following absence.
• Reducing staff absenteeism where reasonable adjustments may have prevented staff burn out, increased stress or reduced productivity.
• Support a culture where staff feel respected, listened to and able to speak up/share their stories and particularly through our staff networks such as Disability and Wellness Network (DAWN) and Neurodiversity Network, improving staff survey results in terms of reducing/eliminating discrimination.