Access to work....

Thought I should share this information to anyone who has a deaf employee or is thinking about employing a deaf staff.....

I've met two people in the past week and neither of them were aware of access to work scheme. I was baffled to why they were not aware yet it was important especially more so since one of them is a 'professional' disabled person who didn't realise he was entitled to funding for practical help with his work due to his disability and the other one was HR who writes the equality policy for employers/business owners etc - this amazed me

ATW - access to work is a government scheme to encourage disabled workers to work on an equal basis regardless self employed or employee ....please ask if you need more info.

Many years ago I took on an employee who, because of a motor bike accident, had several parts of his body missing e.g spleen, bits of lung and a damaged back.

Access to Work provided a special desk and chair amounting to £1,500. Result, I had a good employee and the Government had another worker contributing taxes without need for benefits and the employee started to rebuild his life. A good investment all round I think.

Gary

Fran Tyler (aka Frangrenade) is always going on about Access to Work and how great they are.  Good to see you both spreading the word Sarah!

I have helped lots of employees / employers take advantage of Access to Work in my career in HR and think it is such a fantastic resource. 

I'm not necessarily surprised that employers aren't aware of it as you don't know what you don't know  (if you know what I mean!) but I am always surprised that people with a disability don't flag to their employers that they can use this fund.

 

Hi Sarah

This is a very important point you raise. I am still learning about everything that is available out there and the information you gave me was fab regarding access to work. It appears as a business we already are aware of it, but its not something ive come across yet in the time ive been involved. Definately worth further investigation for me as an individual.

I think that all employees and employers should be aware, in particular employees as im not sure how many people out there know about it!!!

This is great - please pass on this information as many employers are afraid to recruit Deaf or disabled staff as they often don't know how would they pay or look after their staff etc

I also deliver Deaf Awareness Training for any businesses or organisations that either have Deaf colleagues, clients or when an organisation is looking into recruiting a Deaf staff - ATW covered this also.

Deaf people are generally good workers - the biggest issue is communication but can easily resolve with understanding from both parties. Again Deaf people can contribute far more since they can teach their employer deaf awareness by being there i.e. ideal jobs for Deaf people would be working with other Deaf such as schools, old people's homes, hotels as they would give ideas of how to make their hotels accessible etc They will have their own interpreter (paid for by ATW) for meetings, apprasials, social events and any equipment such as fire alarms etc

Every little helps all round ;-)