Retaining staff who become disabled

An employee does not have to disclose that they have become disabled to their employer if they do not want to. However, the University cannot be responsible for making reasonable adjustments to accommodate and individual’s disability if they are not aware of the disability.

An employee may disclose to their manager, their HR representative or to Occupational Health that they are disabled. (Occupational Health will routinely advise the relevant HR representative if an individual they are seeing is likely to be covered under the Equality Act.)

Once the employee has disclosed that they are disabled, if they haven’t already been referred to Occupational Health, the individual may be asked to see the Occupational Health doctor who will be able to advise whether any reasonable adjustments could be made to the job to accommodate the individual’s needs.

Possible adjustments that could be made include:

• reduction or adjustment to working hours;
• adjustment of duties – are there other duties that the disabled employee can do, of a similar level to the duties that they can no longer do?;
• purchase of equipment to assist the employee;
• employment of an assistant to help the individual (e.g. a reader) (Access to Work may be able to assist with the funding for this);
• redeployment to another position within the Department/University.

It is important that the employee and their manager work together to identify the most appropriate solution. Whilst the University has to ensure that any adjustments that need to be made are reasonable in terms of cost and of disruption to the service of the University, managers are expected to do their utmost to support and assist staff who become disabled, in remaining at work.

In some circumstances, it may not be possible to continue employing an individual who has become disabled. Terminating an employee’s contract on the grounds of ill health would only be considered once all other possible solutions have been considered and rejected.