EPUT achieves ‘Disability Confident Level 3 Leader Status’ re-accreditation.
Essex Partnership University NHS Trust (EPUT) has achieved ‘Disability Confident Level 3 Leader Status’ re-accreditation.
The Disability Confident Scheme is government led, designed to encourage employers to recruit, retain and develop people with disabilities and health conditions in the workplace. Organisations that achieve Level 3 Leader status demonstrate a strong commitment to creating a culture of inclusion and accessibility, and actively promote the employment of disabled people.
Lorraine Hammond, Director of Employee Experience for the Trust said: “We are thrilled to achieve this accreditation following nearly five years at Disability Confident Employer status.
“We are committed to creating a workplace that is inclusive and accessible to everyone. With our Disability and Mental Health Network, we will continue to providing support, training, and development opportunities for all employees, and by actively promoting the employment of disabled people.
“We have been working hard to improve our Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES), and ensure EPUT is open, inclusive and a place where everyone feels like they belong.
“Our WDES data shows an improvement in staff accessing the formal capability process due to ill health, as well as an increase in staff reporting that their manager has put reasonable adjustments in place to support them in the workplace.”
Our Disability and Mental Health Network has played a key part in supporting staff with disabilities, long term conditions and neurodiversity in the organisation. As an organisation, we took part in the Kick-start Scheme throughout 2020, and have built upon this with our own paid internship programme, supporting students with special educational needs and disabilities to join under Health Care Support Worker internships.
The Trust first joined the scheme in at level 1, Disability Confident Committed, and has since progressed to become a Disability Confident leader and the highest level. To achieve this level the Trust had to undertake a self-assessment, which was independently validated.
For more information about the Trust and its commitment to inclusion and accessibility, please visit https://eput.nhs.uk/about-us/equality-and-inclusion/