D – Disability Champion

Three days a week I am employed by West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust (WHHT) as their Disability Champion. In this post I explain what the job involves and some of the achievements I have made, during my first year. The foundation of my job is based on both the Disability Confident Scheme and the Workforce Disability Equality Standards.

In November 2016, The Disability Confident Scheme replaced the two tick symbol and is made up of three levels

Level 1 – Disability Confident Committed

Level 2 – Disability Confident Employer

Level 3 – Disability Confident Leader

On starting my role, WHHT was on Level 1 but I helped to the Trust to get to Level 2. Level 2 focuses on ensuring that the recruitment process is inclusive and ensuring that we support our existing members of staff who have a disability.

Whilst, the Disability Confident Scheme applies to all employers, the Workforce Disability Equality Standards are only applicable to the NHS. This a new scheme which was launched by NHS England in February 2019. There are 10 metrics which NHS organisations need to publish information on, showing the differences between disabled and non-disabled members of staff. NHS organisations then need to publish an action plan, showing what they hope to achieve in the next 12 months to improve the experiences of disabled staff.

One of the things which I have set up which will help not only with our performance against both the Disability Confident Scheme and the Metrics but will also help staff morale is a Disability Staff Network. At the time of writing we have not met as a group yet (our first meeting is tomorrow!) but I have already been encouraged with the number of people who have registered an interest in joining the network.

As well as helping to improve lives of disabled members of staff, I am also committed to helping the lives of disabled patients and have delivered disability awareness sessions to various meetings. The meetings which I have spoken to include, Student Nurses, Junior Doctors, Matrons and Consultants.

Another area of my job involves reviewing and commenting on policies and I am proud to say that changes which I suggested to two HR policies have been accepted and are now written into policy.

Since becoming the Disability Champion at work I have also been asked to become the Disability Champion at my church – another role which I am very pleased to have. My first achievement within my church role has been to make communion easier for people who, like me, find holding the small glasses too fiddly.