Focus on Disabilities & Reasonable adjustments training – Employment Law

With around 21% of the working age population being classed as disabled and more people reporting suffering from a long- term health condition than ever, it’s crucial that employers are aware of and are complying with their obligations under disability discrimination law.

For employers, the risk of disability discrimination claims starts at the beginning of the employment process, with specific obligations that apply to job applicants to prevent disability discrimination. These include an obligation to make adjustments to the recruitment process and restrictions on asking pre-employment health questions.

Even where a disability isn’t disclosed or apparent during recruitment, it is common for health issues to subsequently come to the employer’s attention later down the line if an undisclosed or new long term heath condition starts to impact the employee’s performance or attendance.

Throughout employment there is a proactive obligation to support employees with disabilities by making reasonable adjustments to address any disadvantage they are placed at work.

The training session will take you through the legal obligations owed by employers, including the obligations during recruitment and induction and to make reasonable adjustments during employment. We will look at your potential liabilities under the Equality Act 2010 and the risk of claims.

The training will consider key practical issues, such as:

• Who is protected under disability discrimination law?

• How should employers identify people with disabilities/health issues during the application process?

• What questions regarding health can you ask during the recruitment process?

• What health conditions should applicants/employees declare to their employer?

• What are our obligations if employees don’t disclose health conditions or we are unaware of these?

• When should employers seek occupational health advice?

• What adjustments do employers need to make to their normal processes for disabled employees?

• When can an employer issue a warning for disability related absence or performance concerns?

You will gain a good grounding in the legal obligations owed by employers to employees with disabilities and how to manage key issues to reduce the risk of claims. You will leave knowing how to have conversations with all staff about underlying health conditions and a greater understanding of your obligation to make reasonable adjustments in the most common circumstances that arise.

The ideal delegate for this course would be HR professionals and others with HR responsibility.

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Host or Publisher Paris Smith LLP