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Zeinab Ali is a part of the Marketing and Communications team at Inclusive Employers and completed their application for Access to Work in 2024. Read Zeinab’s blog to find out how employers can successfully support disabled colleagues in applying for specialist help through Access to Work and beyond.
What is this employment support programme and what are the benefits for organisations?
Access to Work is a government scheme that aims to help disabled people find or stay in employment. The scheme does this by offering:
- Grants for specialist equipment, assistive software, support workers, coaches, travel expenses, etc.
- Help to manage mental health at work
- Support for completing workplace interviews
The programme does not pay for reasonable adjustments, employers are responsible for preventing disadvantages related to inaccessibility. For example, employers are required by law to make reasonable adjustments to their recruitment processes to make the application process fair.
Where Access to Work can help by providing financial support to individual employees who require specialist equipment and services.
The benefits of applying
There are many benefits for both employers and employees who apply for Access to Work, including:
- Employee retention and reduced turnover. Inaccessibility can have a big impact on the mental and physical health of disabled employees, which could lead to burnout and ill health. This could impact a disabled employee’s ability to stay in work. Specialist support can help prevent this and the costs associated with having to hire and train new employees.
- Increased productivity. Supporting disabled colleagues to succeed will boost their workplace performance. Download the Inclusive performance management factsheet to learn more, Inclusive Employers members can access it for free.
- Supporting inclusion and diversity efforts. Informing line managers, HR teams, colleagues, etc. about the scheme could have a big impact on how inclusive your organisation is for disabled colleagues.
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How to apply – a firsthand account
Below I will discuss my experiences of applying for Access to Work, guide you through the different stages of the process, and share top tips for making a successful application.
Stage 1 – Encourage employees to do their research
My line manager told me about the Access to Work scheme and informed me that the programme offers autism coaching. I was familiar with the programme but didn’t know that disabled people in work could apply for support or receive specialised coaching through the scheme, so my line manager and I agreed it would be a good idea to see what else the programme could offer me.
My line manager asked me to think about what kind of services and tools could make my job easier, so I blocked out some time to:
- Review what support the programme offers.
- Make a list of what tools I would find useful and why they would boost my productivity.
- Research what other autistic people requested. When I used a search engine to look up this topic, the autistic community provided helpful suggestions in social forums or blog posts.
Stage 2 – Meet with HR or key stakeholders
Line managers could arrange a meeting with the HR team to discuss what reasonable adjustments the organisation can support, and what gaps could be filled by Access to Work. For example, I did not have to apply for noise-cancelling headphones through the programme because this was a reasonable adjustment Inclusive Employers were able to provide without support.
Stage 3 – The application process
Before starting the application process, your organisation should appoint a workplace contact who can confirm your disabled colleagues are employed by you when the programme contacts your business. In my case, I asked a HR Advisor for support with this part of the process.
Applicants will also need:
- Their contact details e.g. email address, phone number, etc.
- Their workplace address and postcode
- Information about how their condition affects their work and what support they think they need. Colleagues could use the list they created in stage 1 to help them with this part of the application.
Employees have two options for starting their application:
- They can apply online
- They can call the Access to Work helpline
If your colleagues need the application form in other formats, the programme’s helpline can support you.
If your colleagues would like extra assistance completing the application form, their line manager could go through this process with them. When I applied online, my manager and I blocked out time in our calendar to answer all the questions. The application should take around an hour to complete, but make sure to give yourself enough time to complete the application and review your answers before submitting them.
The application can take months to be processed by Access to Work because it prioritises disabled candidates starting a new job to ensure their success, so it is wise to complete the application as soon as possible. Line managers can also support the application process by calling the support helpline to follow up on their colleague’s application.
Stage 4 – The interview
Once the application has been reviewed, a caseworker will contact your colleague to arrange an interview. The interviewer will ask the applicant questions about the support they requested and the reasons behind the requests.
I recommend giving colleagues time to prepare for and attend the interview. I brought the list I made in stage 1 to my interview to make sure I covered everything I requested.
The interviewer may make recommendations or suggestions. For example, I told my interviewer I wanted to use Dragon Software as a screen reader because I spend a lot of time proofreading and reviewing content. I believed the software would help me be faster at reading the material. The interviewer suggested I use a programme called Read & Write Help instead because they believed the software was better for screen reading.
Stage 5 – After the interview
Access to Work will contact the applicant and/or their carer to confirm if the requests have been approved. At this stage, the employer will need to implement the approved support.
This means the organisation will need to purchase the equipment or services and complete the follow-up paperwork to claim the expenses back. The employer will need to action this as soon as possible, as the organisation will need to complete the paperwork within a few weeks of the application’s approval. Your team will also need to submit evidence of purchase via postal service.
Employers should also allow time for employees to adjust to the equipment they have requested or to use the services they have applied for. For example, Inclusive Employers gave me time to attend a training day on how to use the Read & Write Help software. I also have time blocked out for my autism coaching sessions as part of my professional development.
If circumstances change, employees should be able to contact their caseworker to request support or new equipment depending on their changing needs.
Next steps for disability inclusion
If you would like more support or advice on how to embed disability inclusion into your workplace culture, complete the contact form below and a member of our team will be in touch.