#PartOfMePodcast – Episode 3: Ross Chats Access to Work

Esi:

Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of part of me. This is the third in the series so far. It’s January 2018 so I want to start by wishing everybody and happy new year. Today. We’re joined by Ross, who has happily agreed to be interviewed by us. So hello Ross, 

Ross:

Hello Esi. How are you? I’m very well. Thank you. How are you 

Esi:

Very well? Thank you. Good. Do you mind starting by telling us who you are and what you do?

Ross:

I work at the Spectrum Centre for Independent Living based in Southampton, and I am a community employment specialist.

Esi:

Okay? And what? What does that mean?

Ross:

But basically, my role at Spectrum  is to support people through a job Club, which is basically, in a nutshell, around helping people back into work and looking at what support they may need once they’re in work. And most of my clients have been on long term health benefits and have a long term health condition.

Esi:

Okay, that sounds really interesting. How long have you been doing that?

Ross:

I’ve been doing that just about 18 months. Okay, 

Esi:

Brilliant, excellent.

Ross:

And we’ve got nine people so far into paid employment.

Esi:

Oh, wow, that’s brilliant. That’s absolutely brilliant. Do you mind telling us a bit about the reason you’re being interviewed today is because you are a disabled person and you’re quite successful in the workplace. So would you mind telling our listeners a little bit about your disability and what it means to you, kind of, how it affects you, and how, what kind of support and but also how you manage it, really?

Ross:

Yeah. So I have cerebral palsy, which is a neurological condition, and it basically for me around just needing a little bit extra support around me being able to do my job. So what that means, in practice, is that I need help to drive I don’t drive myself, and I have to have a support worker who’s able to take do all the things that I would find a little bit more challenging or difficult In the workplace, or as I like to say, the things that maybe would take me too long if you’re being paid to do them.

Esi:

Okay, can you give us an example of some of those? Because do you mean people actually doing your work for you, or do you mean people kind of facilitating you to do your own work?

Ross:

No, that’s a really, really important question, really good question. So the the Access to Work is around me, being able to direct somebody to do those parts of the job, I find a little bit more tricky or difficult it doesn’t replace me doing doing the role for myself. For example, typing of a letter I can type, but I’m quite a slow typer, so if I got a large report to write, actually is far more cost effective for me and me and to where if I could ask for extra support to be able to do that task.

Esi:

So just to clarify, if you would type, I think that’s a really good example typing a letter. You would tell your support worker what to type, and then they would type it for you. So essentially, you’re dictating to somebody who’s typing it for you, because your physical actions are slower, but you are cognitively able to do it yourself.

Ross:

Yes, correct. 

Esi:

Brilliant. Okay. Thank you very much. So what do you think the hardest thing for you regarding your disability is in the workplace.

Ross:

Hardy thing is actually probably how long it takes me just to be able to get in another car. It was a really practical, really practical thing. But actually, when you’re when you’re rushing around, and quite often, I’m rushing from one meeting to another in different locations, like a lot of able bodied people do day to day. Actually, when you have additional needs, it does take a little bit longer just to do those normal everyday activities like parking. Like, you know, getting yourself out your car, getting to the place, making sure you can access the venue.

Esi:

So , how do you ensure that, okay, sorry, sorry, I missed that last bit. Can you just repeat that last bit, please.

Ross:

making sure you can get into the room,

Esi:

Right, Okay. Sue. How do you ensure that you’re able to carry out your job and meet the tasks that you have to do in your employment? 

Ross:

A key thing for me is the preparation, okay, so making sure that you know exactly what the employer’s expectation of you, and the role is, is a really key, key point. Having a good sense of humour, I think, gets me through a lot of what I have to deal with on a daily basis. But also, more importantly, the people I work with are key to my my success, my team, my team, quite carefully, because the team is a big extension of me. Yeah. Does that make sense.

Esi:

Yeah. No, I think it does make sense. So, you know, I completely understand that your team has to be kind of on board with what you’re doing. I suppose it’s like any employee that employer has that they need to be the right employee for the job. So they have to meet the job description, but also the person’s specifications, and they can help you achieve what you want to achieve, and kind of work with you to make it happen.

Ross:

Yeah unlike any other, any other role, when you work, access to work, PA, you are with that a considerable amount of the day. They drive me to and from venue. Really meet. Meetings together. We quite often have lunch together. So it’s really important, a bit like a personal care or support worker in a care setting, you get on well, and that relationship is key.

Esi:

Okay, brilliant, excellent. I never thought of it like that, but yeah, you’re right. It’s one of those relationships you know that you have to make sure that you know the person really understands where you’re coming from and what you’re trying to achieve. But equally, I suppose you have to really work with them to kind of pick up on their weakness, pick up on their strengths and support their needs, to develop them a bit more as well, yeah,

Ross:

And also ensuring that you’re meeting the objective of your company Absolutely, because actually, you’re representing the company in which you’re working for her, you know, by any employee, you know, we have the whole capability to ensure that we’re representing the company values of work doing a good job in delivering the outcomes that the employer wants you to meet.

Esi:

That’s a very good point. And that’s a very good point. Now, you’ve mentioned a couple of times something called Access to Work. Can you just explain what that means and what it is so

Ross:

Access to Work is a fund from your government to help disabled people back into work and to enable them to do the parts of the role that possibly they wouldn’t be able to do without that additional support. 

Esi:

Okay, cool, 

Ross:

The very detailed and time consuming assessment you have to go through, but if they’re basically to enhance your support package. So it’s not just about the individual in which it’s supporting. It’s about also supporting the employer. So access to work does two things, you the individual, but he also anxiety to help the employer with any questions that they might have.

Esi:

Okay, cool. So who can apply for access to work? Is it just people with physical disabilities?

Ross:

No, it goes across the whole disability strand. So it could be people with mental health issues, people with height impairment, of worse physical impairment as well.

Esi:

Okay, can. And what kind of things can it support somebody with? So you mentioned a little bit about, I think you mentioned it can help with support workers. But there is there anything else that access to work can support with?

Ross:

Yeah, sure, access to work or coke support with providing equipment. Yeah, it can fund mobility equipment so that mobility equipment so that could be a wheelchair, it can support things like specialist adaptations to a workplace. So height adjustable table your work, facing different monitors, keyboards, in some cases, interpretation services, huge market, obviously, for people that require interpretation support, and there’s quite a lot in the media around interpretation services about access to work at the moment people not having fair access. So quite an interesting area that I believe is going to probably expand over the next few months.

Esi:

Yeah. Yeah. So if people wanted to find out more about access to work, how do they apply for it? 

Ross:

​​Go online with all these things and go to direct gov.uk, and just type into the search bar access to work in front of you.

Esi:

Okay, cool. And is there a limited I suppose I should ask, is there, I suppose there has to be limit to everything. Unfortunately, money doesn’t grow on trees. Is there a limited amount of of things that people can apply for? Because I heard that people can kind of have a mixture of things, so they can have equipment, support workers, and sometimes travel as well. So is there a top range of money that people can can apply for

Ross:

It’s down to the individual need? I don’t work for the Access to Work division, so probably the best thing I can advise your listeners to do is, as I said already, to go on to direct gov.uk, and read  out all the Access to Work guidance.

Esi:

Awesome. That sounds great. Thank you very much. That’s really that’s really useful to know. Thank you for telling us about that. So, so if you were going to offer any support to disabled employees in the workplace, what do you think it would be? I mean, I know you touched a bit upon it when you talked about how you manage your disability in the workplace, but is there any other advice you might give to disabled employees? 

Ross:

Yeah, I think for me, it’s about, I always take my candidate when I’m trying to get the work work ready. Be honest with your employer. If you have a disability, try and declare it at the earliest opportunity. I know this is a bit of a hot potato with some people that they don’t want they don’t feel comfortable to declare their difficulty the way, I think that is the earlier you can declare it, the earlier you can be getting the right support, and the earlier the employer has the opportunity to make those make those changes, make those reasonable adjustments that we all talk about, actually there Are, there is support out there for employers through programmes like access to work to make those reasonable adjustments for people. People shouldn’t be scared about declaring that they they may have an additional that can go as early on in the process of the interview, you know, making making the whole process concern to finish a bit more comfortable, yeah, you know, to make a huge, make a huge difference.

Esi:

Okay, brilliant. I think, I think the couple of really important points there kind of declaring your disability as soon as possible in order to to be able to to benefit from the reasonable adjustments that are on offer, an employer doesn’t have to, doesn’t have any obligations to you as an employee in the department of reasonable adjustments until they know that you are disabled. Field I’ve heard. So it’s really important to say that at the beginning.

Ross:

And employees should use the HR their HR department as well. Okay, to support them in the process

Esi:

Okay, so Can you just elaborate a bit on that? And so what kind of things can they use their HR department as well, just for advice,

Ross:

HR can be really helpful in terms of maybe giving people corrective time in the application process. They look at maybe making sure that the format available in terms of the application form, or providing that application package in a slightly different way, the physical support around the interview, I think we all get a little bit caught up in and see we’ve always done interviews in a certain way. Actually, you know, we’re not going to change. yeah, you have to, have to do an interview in a certain way. The same questions. But there’s nothing to COP. An hour before the interview, a candidate having a question, providing you’re going to ask the same questions to each candidate,

Esi:

Yeah, no, I completely agree. But, you know, I completely agree with what you’re saying. I will just add a caveat to that if you’re going to give one candidate access to the questions, then you should give them all, because obviously, you’re not necessarily going to know that the person’s disabled before they come into the interview. Obviously, we have equal, you know, equality monitoring forms, but they’re not really for the interviewee, the interviewer. See, you’ve also got me,

Ross:

You’ve also got the guaranteed interview, which employers should be, should be signed up to, yeah, if you meet the minimal criteria for the for the role, you should be guaranteed.

Esi:

Yeah, no, I agree 

Ross:

That should give the failed people, people with impairment, you know, a little bit more constant in terms of knowing that, you know, providing aid meet the minimal criteria for the role they have a fairly good childhood, getting into, at least have an interview

Esi:

Yeah, no, that’s a very good point. Is there anything else you would like our listeners to know? Ross, 

Ross:

No, I just encourage both employees and employers to benefit from the benefit from what what disabled people and people with understanding to the workplace it shouldn’t be seen as a negative experience, and quite Often in the modern world. Now you know, there’s different ways in which candidates can access or we can access services. So it doesn’t just mean, you know, they must be in the office at 9am in the morning. 9am starting points. Challenging for some people. And it can be challenging whether you’re disabled or not. Then you know, there are flexible working patterns that most employers now operate to get the most out of there, to get the most out of their staff.

Esi:

 I completely agree. And everything with with remote working, and everything with technology, means that it’s not it’s not always imperative for that employee to be in the physical office, in the physical workspace. You can keep in touch with your employee as much as you want by giving them the technology, giving them a computer using things like conferencing calls and things, but I think it’s important, whilst you’re saying that, and I completely agree with you, not to forget that they’re big part of having a job in an organisation as being part of the organisation culture, so Finding, always finding ways to include those employees and everything that’s going on is really important too,

and being comfortable with asking for a break. Yeah, actually, don’t struggle on in silence. Yeah, people can be the whole culture can be. Can lend itself to maybe you need to play there quite often. The meeting has been going

Ross:

And being comfortable with asking for a break. Yeah, actually, don’t struggle on in silence. Yeah, people can be the whole culture can be. Can lend itself to maybe you need to break there quite often. The meeting has been going on for five hours. 

Esi:

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. I think that’s a really good point to leave that on. Ross, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thank you everyone for listening today. Ross mentioned quite a few useful things. If you want to find out more about anything, Ross mentioned, from inclusive recruitment to inclusive workspace environments to access to work, please get in touch and Celebrating Disability will be happy to help. Thank you very much. Bye.