Disability History Month 2023

Disability History Month provides a platform to run local awareness campaigns and an opportunity to: 

• Celebrate the achievements of staff with disabilities. 
• Share resources to support disabled staff. 
• Raise awareness of what a disability is – not all disabilities are visible or immediately apparent. 
• Encourage leaders and managers to support staff through compassion and inclusivity. 
• Encourage staff to record their disability on the NHS Electronic Staff Record and have open conversations with their managers. 
• Check-in with staff that sufficient adjustments have been made to support those with disabilities to carry out their roles - whether that’s onsite or from home. 
• Review recruitment practices to ensure they are inclusive. 

Let us know how you are supporting Disability History Month. 

Download our campaign graphics

Disability History Month logo/social media image 

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Social media 

Follow us on Twitter @NHSE_Diversity using hashtags #DisabilityHistoryMonth, #UKDHM and #LeadtheChange. 

Email 

Please contact diversityandinclusion@nhsemployers.org 

With over 23 per cent of respondents to the NHS Staff Survey indicating that they have a illness or long-term condition lasting 12 months or more, that means that 1 in 5 of the NHS workforce is likely to be covered by the legal definition of disability (as set out in the Equality Act 2010).  

The following figures are taken from the Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES) 2022 Annual Report.   

• Disabled staff are twice as likely to enter the formal capability process as their non-disabled colleagues. 

• 2022 data shows an increase of 0.5 percentage points to 4.2 per cent of the total workforce. 51.2 per cent of trusts have five or fewer Disabled staff in senior positions (bands 8c and above, including medical consultants and Board members). 

• Disabled board member numbers have increased by 30. The proportion has increased by 1.0 percentage points to 4.6 per cent. 

• Trusts that are rated outstanding in the CQC well-led domain show evidence of being better employers for Disabled staff. 

• Disabled staff feeling pressure from their manager to come to work, despite not feeling well enough to perform their duties has reduced by 1.2 percentage points. 

NHS Employers and the NHS Confederation have developed a range of resources including blogs, case studies, videos and guidance to help support disability in the workplace. 

Webpages 

• Supporting disabled staff in the workplace 
• Embedding the WDES 
• Supporting staff with caring responsibilities 
• Understanding disability infographic  
• Improving staff equality networks through partnership working – a good practice guide 
• An inclusive approach to disability leave 
• Health passport  
• Health and wellbeing conversations  
• How to recruit and support disabled staff 
• Learning Disability Employment Programme 
• Workforce Disability Equality Standard (2022) key finding and actions 
• A guide to improving staff disability data
• Making effective reasonable adjustments to support staff in their roles
• Supporting the mental health of disabled staff

Webinar recordings 

• Supporting learning difficulties and disabilities apprenticeships  

Videos and podcasts 

• Understanding and supporting staff with a hidden disability  

Case studies  

• Inclusive culture - Northeast London NHS Foundation Trust became more inclusive by improving its recruitment processes, investing in staff networks and introducing a health passport for disabled staff and those with long-term health conditions.  
• Providing rapid-access mental health services for NHS staff- Learn how Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust created a rapid-access mental health service to support its staff. 
• Improving disability declaration rates at Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust- Find out how Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation trust improved their disability declaration rates.

Blogs 

• I don't want to be called disabled- Paul Deemer talks about the language used to describe disability and the impact it has on disabled staff recording their disability on ESR.

The UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities is held annually on 3 December. 

#PurpleLightUp is a global movement led by PurpleSpace that celebrates and draws attention to the economic contribution of the 386 million disabled employees around the world. It is held annually as a mark of respect to the UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) held annually on 3rd December. 

You can find resources including zoom backgrounds, graphics and a guide of how to support the campaign on the website.

29-30 December - Disability Summit: Lead the Change- our annual Disability Summit is held virtually over two days. Find out more on our Disability Summit webpage.  

13 December- Why and how to build inclusive teams- join Alli McCall, Clinical Coding Service Manager and Lorna Harasymiuk, Choices College Manager at Newcastle Hospitals talking about the reasonable adjustments they have put in place within her department to create an inclusive environment for neurodiverse staff and the benefits her team has seen as a result. Contact nuth.editeam@nhs.net to book your place.