Words by Smiley Team
More than 100 businesses – which employ around 170,000 people in the UK - have committed to becoming more inclusive employers of disabled people after joining Virgin Media and the disability equality charity, Scope’s campaign to address the UK’s disability employment crisis.
Virgin Media and Scope’s #WorkWithMe forum is helping businesses to take the steps to transform their policies and practices so they can support as many disabled people as possible.
The UK’s disability employment gap – the rate at which disabled people are employed compared to non-disabled people – has remained static for more than a decade, with disabled people’s employment still stuck about thirty percentage points behind.
This issue has been compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic where many disabled people who have not been redeployed or furloughed are facing an impossible choice between going to work and risking their health, or staying home and being unemployed.
As a result, Virgin Media and Scope are urging businesses to do everything they can to support disabled people and to join the #WorkWithMe community to become a more inclusive employer. It comes as both organisations have supported more than a million disabled people with the skills and confidence to get and stay in work.
#WorkWithMe is a free platform designed by business for business, helping companies – large and small - to take accountability for how they employ disabled people, and offers practical advice on how to improve the workplace and culture for disabled people.
A number of the UK’s biggest brands have signed up to the community since its launch in 2019, including American Express, Centrica, Deloitte, Ford, Innocent Drinks, Legal and General and Unilever.
“We’re committed to ensuring our firm is inclusive, where individual differences are respected and valued. An inclusive culture means encouraging true diversity of thought and creating an environment that allows everyone to play to their strengths. Laura Fullstone, Inclusion Manager at Deloitte, said.
“We are committed to ensuring that our working environment is accessible, inclusive and welcoming for all, as well as being fully enabled by agile working and technology. We really value being a part of the #WorkWithMe community as a forum to share best practice and ideas to help us achieve this.”
“Trying to change career was like going into the unknown, with my eyesight condition it was really quite scary."
Virgin Media and Scope have now supported more than a million disabled people with the skills and confidence to get and stay in work via their Support to Work service; the first employment service of its kind for disabled people in the UK.
The free service - launched in 2018 as part of Virgin Media and Scope’s disability employment campaign - aims to address the inequalities disabled people can face when applying for work or when they are in the workplace.
More than a million disabled people have used the Support to Work service – accessing online resources or a tailored 12-week programme which provides key advice such as how to write a CV and a cover letter, interview practice, as well as how to discuss workplace adjustments with an employer.
As a result of the pandemic, the service is facing record demand with a 236% increase in referrals in October 2020 compared to the same period the year before.
Jaki Wilson, 48 from Basingstoke, is blind and has used Support to Work twice in her career. Once to help her move from being a support worker at a hospital, to supporting victims of domestic violence. And then again when an opportunity became available within the same company.
“Trying to change career was like going into the unknown, with my eyesight condition it was really quite scary." Jaki said. My Support to Work adviser was just really, really brilliant. We started working together around once a week. At the time I wanted to switch careers, I didn’t have a huge amount of relevant skills from my previous employment.
“So we worked together, looking at what career I wanted to go into, and managed to make my skills transferable. That’s something I just don’t think I would have been able to manage very well on my own.
“My adviser coached me through how to talk about my disability positively and when to bring it up. Previously I was telling interviewers what I couldn’t do rather than getting them to think about how I can do the job.
“Likewise, when I wanted to move jobs Support to Work was there for me again and I’m now very happy as a Domestic Abuse Health Advocate."
Jeff Dodds, Virgin Media’s Chief Operating Officer, said: “It is an uncomfortable truth that huge numbers of disabled people continue to be left out of the workplace, with the Covid-19 crisis forcing even more disabled people out of work.
“Therefore our #WorkWithMe community has never been more important or timely; helping employers – no matter their size – to become more inclusive and supportive employers of disabled people.
“As a business leader I have seen first-hand the benefits of employing disabled people and how they have enriched our company with sought-after skills, from diversity of thought to problem solving and creativity.
“I am urging other employers to do what they can to support disabled people during these difficult times and to join #WorkWithMe.”
For more information about Scope's work and find out how you can get involved with Scope, head to https://www.scope.org.uk/
Scope also provides a free, independent impartial advice and support service for disabled people and their families.
Phone: 0808 800 3333.
Textphone: dial 18001 then 0808 800 3333.
Calls are free from UK landlines and mobiles.
Email: [email protected].
