Good news from the Disability Staff Network

The Disability Staff Network has been set up with the aim of supporting Trust staff with a disability, whether the disability is visible or not.

“Get involved and help support Trust colleagues make change happen.”

The roles of the steering group are coming up for re-election in the New Year. These include:

• chair
• deputy chair
• secretary
• communications officer

The definition of a disability under the Equality Act 2010 is:

“If you have a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ negative effect on your ability to do normal daily activities.”

Disabilities come in all shapes and sizes and we all need a platform to make sure our needs are recognised when addressing changes to policy and procedure.

The overall aims of the network are: 

• To empower and support staff with a disability/ongoing long term health condition to achieve and/or maintain their potential
• Maximise the contribution of staff in delivering the Trust’s mission, values and strategic objectives
• To help shape and influence policies and procedures within the Trust to ensure that equality is proactively considered

This all ties in to the NHS Workforce Disability Equality Standard which came in to effect on the 19 April 2019 which is a set of specific measures that will enable NHS organisations to compare the experiences of disabled and non-disabled staff. This also ties in to the research showing that staff who feel part of the workforce and are valued are more productive and in the case of our service users they are better able to deliver high quality care.​ ​To find out more information about the network or to join, please email disability.network@swyt.nhs.uk​.

Updates on what we’re working on:

• Following a review of disabled car parking spaces – two extra disabled spaces are to be created outside the Bretton Centre at Fieldhead Hospital
• Collaboration with Learning and Development to support students with disabilities when attending training courses within the Learning and Wellbeing Centre:
  – Staff self-enrolling via ESR can request any reasonable adjustments in the ‘below box’ or contact the service directly
  – A section of the Study Leave form to request reasonable adjustments for internal training courses has been inserted
  – A permanent hearing loop is now in use in the Large Conference Room.  A portable loop is also available in reception which can be used in any of the other training rooms
  – Confirmation and reminder emails now include contact details for the Learning and Development team for requesting reasonable adjustments/support

We are working on other projects…look out for news on the intranet.

Staff Disability Network Meetings are held periodically, come along and join in – details will be published also on the Trust intranet.