UK: Reasonable Adjustments autistics R entitled 2 BY LAW

Post Reply New Topic

Know your rights as an autistic person:

http://www.nhsconfed.org/Publications/D ... ng-255.pdf

“It is a statutory requirement under the Equality Act 20101 and the Health and Social Care Act 20082 that public sector agencies make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to their practice to make them accessible and effective for all, including people with autism, learning disabilities, mental health issues, or a combination of these. This means changing services so that they are easier to use.”

“Adjustments should be made to appointment times, duration and interventions with the doctor. Recording systems in GP practices should identify people with autism, learning disabilities, mental health issues, or a combination of these, and show any reasonable adjustments they require, such as easy-read appointment letters and reminder phone calls or texts. There should also be more frequent contact in the time spent waiting for an appointment, so people know they are not forgotten.”

What are reasonable adjustments?
‘Reasonable adjustments’ are changes to services to make them easier to use and access. This includes:

• removing physical barriers
• having clear signs in buildings, giving directions
• using pictures and large print on appointment letters
• making alterations to policies and procedures
• change staff training and service delivery to ensure they work equally well for people with learning disabilities or autism.

Environment and workforce

• offering a home visit

References
1. The Equality Act 2010. www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/contents
2. The Health and Social Care Act 2008. www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatist ... /DH_110288
3. HM Government (2011), No health without mental health.
4. Department of Health (2010), Fulfilling and rewarding lives: the strategy for adults with autism in England.
5. Department of Health (2009), Valuing people now: a new three-year strategy for people with learning disabilities.
6. Skills for Care and Skills for Health (2011), Getting it right for people with autism.
7. Mencap, Getting it right charter. www.mencap.org.uk

http://www.nhsconfed.org/Publications/D ... autism.pdf

“Statutory guidance is due in December 2010 placing legal duties on local authorities, NHS bodies and foundation trusts.”

http://www.nhsconfed.org/Publications/b ... sible.aspx

“People with learning disabilities or autism deserve equal access to mental health services and good treatment, but they currently receive variable treatment across England.”

Thanks for this. I've asked for reasonable adjustments, which have been refused. Because I have no formal diagnosis, (both who have rejected the adjustments claim I don't have Autism) I've been told no-one is required to make any reasonable adjustments. The only criteria I don't meet under the Equalities Act is the diagnosis bit.

One of the people I work for wrote in an evaluation form "Miss Moneypenny is not the most social of people..."

The main area of adjustment I would wish to see is not to be evaluated on how "social" I am perceived to be.

While I find this remark discriminatory, it is a grey area because only HR and a couple of managers in the department know I have an AS diagnosis.

I understand that while being treated unfairly on the grounds of something resulting from a disability would be unlawful (not social because of being on the spectrum), when this is just perceived as part of a quirky personality type that they don't want to work with, the law can't do anything.

This raises the question as to whether I should disclose to all the people I directly report to.

See the first paragraph, below the first link, it says "or mental health..." so if you have anxiety, depression or anything else that constitutes a mental health issue, even without a diagnosis you are entitled to the reasonable adjustments you require.

I'm having issues with my GP surgery at the moment, they are clueless about the law. I had a stroppy call from the surgery, which reduced me to tears, during which the manager said "you are one of 6,000 patients, why should we let you have access to email" and "I will do what the doctors tell me to do" even AFTER I had faxed them similar information to this thread OP.

People with a diagnosis can get NAS to help advocate for them, people without a diagnosis but with mental health issues can get the mental health charity MIND to advocate for them. They have staff specially acting as advocates.

If the person who wrote it, isn't aware of your diagnosis, they don't know you have a disability so it couldn't be classed as discriminatory in law. If you would like them to bear your autism in mind, you do need to disclose it to anyone responsible for appraisals. It's your choice, but you would never be able to accuse them of discrimination if they were unaware. Otherwise it just constitutes an ordinary comment on your work attitude really, they could bring it into things like "team spirit" or how you "get on with colleagues" or buy in to the "organisational ethos".

As regards 'offering a home visit' being a reasonable adjustment, my last employer, who sacked me after I disclosed my Aspergers, after they suspended me for standing up to a bullying manager, refused to hold a meeting at my house due to what the HR manager called my 'unpredictable conduct' at a previous meeting at head office.

When I asked what the HR manager meant by 'unpredictable conduct' she said I had scared her, another manager and my own advocate. This was because I'd said I was worried about people at work knowing I had Aspergers as I thought they might have got their knowledge of Aspergers from some Daily Mail headline about someone with Aspergers who'd killed someone. When I said this my advocate said, half jokingly, "Shut up Vanessa! you're scaring them and you're scaring me!", which I think was a ridiculous thing to say! So obviously my employer had leapt on this as something to be held against me and the HR manager wrote in the meeting notes that I had said I might end up killing someone!

I remember you saying that in your ESA thread. I can't believe they were so stupid towards you. They were probably faking it as an excuse to validate them not doing what they were supposed to do. People are crap aren't they.

Yes

I don't want to have to be in the same room as people this stupid, let alone work with them!

They seem to be the norm for the average workplace these days though

Disability legislation is only ever going to be as good as the intelligence level of those needing to apply it!

And after the phone call I had this morning, which has put me on a real downer, I am beginning to wonder whether the Government makes these laws just to be seen to be doing something, but not policing it and with public body employees not even being properly aware of it, means in reality it's a huge fight to get our rights. Employers, probably find all sorts of loophole to get out of it where they can, or make it so stressful for employees to make a case that many can't go through it. And they know it. So were the laws all bought in for face value I wonder...

In a lot of respects I'd say yes ie they are just paying lipservice to the idea of equality as it takes a lot of effort and determination to put the actual law to the test, and people who have been bullied out of their jobs are often in no fit mental state for a legal battle and employers know this full well.

People often can't afford to pay for the necessary legal advice either. The only reason I have been able to take my ex employer to an employment tribunal is because my house insurance includes legal cover as well. Without that there's no way I would have been able to afford to pay a solicitor myself. My case was taken to a barrister to ask whether he thought it had a good chance of success (they only take your case forward if they think it has over a certain percentage chance of success) and he thought it did.

If I don't win my case then I will consider the Disability Act a complete waste of time.

I appreciate your efforts to share information, but it would be more helpful if you were to specify which part(s) of the UK the legislation related to.

The Equality Act 2010 applies to Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland, but other documents you've linked to or quoted apply to England only.

I hadn't realised that. Oh well, you've made the distinction now, so people will know. Thanks.

From experience, no-one seems to be policing it. I had a temp job (pre-Autism diagnosis) and asked for a few reasonable adjustments and was told this was fine. It was just "because of <issue> I need <adjustment>" and was there's no problem with that. A pity that this was only a temporary job; as all the staff were fantastic.

On the other hand, I've had really bad experiences from companies who claim to help disabled people in some way, some of whom made the rules up as they went along.