Reasonable Adjustments
What are reasonable adjustments?
A reasonable adjustment is a change or changes to a staff member’s work environment, working arrangements, or equipment that removes or reduces a disadvantage related to a disability, mental health condition, or long-term health condition.
The Equality Act 2010 places a duty on employers to make reasonable adjustments to ensure staff with disabilities, or physical or mental health conditions, are not substantially disadvantaged when doing their jobs.
Examples of reasonable adjustments may include, but are not limited to:
- Consideration of adaptions to working hours/pattern, or flexible working
- Consideration of adaptions to work location, or home-working when required
- Alterations to the working environment or procedures
- Purchase or modification of equipment
- Reallocation of duties
- Redeployment.
Who can apply for reasonable adjustments?
In most cases, the obligation to make reasonable adjustments will be triggered after a job candidate or new staff member expressly requests changes to assist them in applying for or performing their job. In some cases, staff members may already be in the job and changes to their disability/long term health condition starts to affect their ability to perform their role.
How to agree and implement reasonable adjustments
Communication with the new starter or current staff member at an early stage will be essential to identify what adjustments they require to assist them to undertake their role. In some cases, this may be a simple adaption such as a footstool or specific mouse for computer work. In others, this may not be so clear, or the adjustments required are more complex.
To assess whether a member of staff requires a reasonable adjustment, a manager or Employee Relations Adviser should discuss this with the staff member and then complete an Occupational Health (OH) referral. An appointment will then be made with one of our OH advisers. Following this appointment, the adviser will recommend if any adjustments are required (temporary or permanent) for the staff member to undertake their role. Some of these adjustments may relate to changes to working patterns or duties.
Where specific equipment is recommended to be purchased, Occupational Health will state whether this will be covered by the reasonable adjustment budget (if the staff member has a long-term condition or disability) or whether this will need to be funded directly by the staff member’s department.
Reasonable Adjustment Passport
We have created a Reasonable Adjustment Passport, (.docx) which is a record of reasonable adjustments agreed between a staff member and their manager. The passport acts as a live document about agreed changes in the workplace. It also means that if the staff member changes role or manager, they have a formal record of what has been agreed.
It is not a requirement to use the passport, and the decision to do so should be with the staff member. If it is used, it is to be primarily completed by the staff member, who should have control over the level of detail regarding any personal information. Access to the document must be limited to the staff member, their manager, and Occupational Health, unless the staff member has given consent.
Who is responsible for paying for reasonable adjustments?
Not all adjustments will have a cost, for example if a staff member needs to change their start and end working time but still do the same number of hours overall, this is a cost-free reasonable adjustment.
Where specific equipment is recommended to be purchased, Occupational Health will state whether this will be covered by the reasonable adjustment budget (if the staff member has a long-term condition or disability) or whether this will need to be funded directly by the staff member’s department.
Staff can also request support for funding of adjustments via Access to Work (AtW), which is a government fund run by the Department for Work and Pensions to support disabled people to remain or take up paid work.
Who determines whether an adjustment is ‘reasonable’?
What is ‘reasonable’ will depend on the circumstances of each case.
Relevant factors can include:
- Cost of the adjustment
- Resources available to the employer to fund this adjustment
- Practicality of implementing any adjustments
- If it will be effective in removing or reducing any disadvantage for the staff member
What if the staff member’s requirement does not come under Reasonable Adjustments or Access to Work?
Support for funding equipment required for reasons that are not covered by the Equality Act 2010 will need to be covered from the respective departments budget. Many common items, such as wrist rests and foot stools, can be purchased internally through DITS or Central Stores.
If assistance is needed to source an item, please consult your department's DSE facilitator or HSLO/DHSO.
