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East Riding of Yorkshire Council: Growing the council's Disabled Staff Network

Two staff members with lived experience supported the Disabled Staff Network at East Riding Council to thrive.

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Introduction

Two staff members with lived experience supported the Disabled Staff Network at East Riding Council to thrive. Using their own lived experience and passion, they worked outside of the remit of their paid job roles, to grow the network from 12 to over 70 members. Working collaboratively with colleagues across the council, they not only grew a crucial support network for disabled staff and staff with long-term health conditions but provided a forum for East Riding of Yorkshire Council staff to advocate for each other and find shared solutions to accessibility issues.

They have been able to grow the network’s reputation to the point where they can influence service provision and policy at a local and regional level. This has included working with the commissioners at the local Integrated Care Board (ICB) as a key consultation group, to inform the new Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) service pathway.

The challenge

Barriers can exist for disabled people in work, who are statistically less likely to be both recruited and retained. The disability employment gap is currently 28.9 per cent in the UK. A staff network is a group of colleagues, often with a shared heritage, experience, or characteristic, who come together, to support one another, and influence inclusion within their organisation. 

Prior to the establishment of East Riding’s Disability Staff Network, there was little visibility within the council of disabled people or those with long-term health conditions, and no peer-to-peer forum for them to share their experiences, challenges and find solutions or peer support.

An additional challenge once the network was established was that it was seen as an organisational initiative that was limited in numbers and reach across the council. There was a need to raise engagement and awareness, not only of the network, but of the barriers that exist for disabled people.

The response

An officer with lived experience of disability was invited to become chair of the Disabled Staff Network. They partnered with another staff member with lived experience, and together they drew on their shared passion to reach out to other staff and grow the network. Between them they were able to develop the network, increasing the scope and reach to grow membership and raise awareness and visibility of disabled employees at the council.

To increase uptake and encourage staff members across the council to join they created an information pack and an animation to circulate via the council’s internal communications team and worked with organisational development and inclusion colleagues to raise awareness of what the Disabled Staff Network can offer to staff.

They held presentations with different departments, talking openly about disability, busting myths and tackling misconceptions to enable more staff to feel able to join. They spoke about hidden disabilities, including neurodivergence and long-term health conditions, and how joining the network might help support staff.

Over time, they have been able to grow the network, creating an environment that supports many disabled staff across the organisation, including the introduction of a neurodivergent branch within the network. Members meet virtually and face to face. Originally meeting just once a month to discuss and solve practical accessibility issues, the network now also has fortnightly informal wellbeing drop-ins for members, which provides a vital forum for peer-to-peer support between staff with shared experiences.

The network has also run themed sessions around specific conditions, for example sessions that provided information, support and discussion for those with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), or who were on an ADHD diagnosis pathway or wanted to find out more information for themselves or someone they know. The sessions enabled staff from all parts of the organisation to work together and create an online interactive space for staff with ADHD to share their challenges, strengths, tips and helpful resources. This collaborative tool remains active, for staff to add to and share with others.

The network has also been able to influence policies and practices within the local authority, by working with the organisational development and Inclusion team on recruitment and retention issues as well as disabled parking policies. Network members have formed relationships and worked closely with system partners in the Integrated Care Board (ICB) to inform the development ADHD provision across the region, building on the work already undertaken around ADHD. They supported the creation of documents that outlined the impact of ADHD on council staff throughout their lives and shared these with commissioners.

The impact

 The reputation that the Disabled Staff Network has built has allowed network members to have an impact across the whole of the council. As well as providing a supportive and welcoming space for everyone, the network leads have increased their own visibility and expertise in advocating for others  and have been able to use this to influence front line service provision across the region, including working with the local ICB. This work with the ICB was to share network members’ experience of living with ADHD and accessing services in the region. This has enabled staff members with ADHD to directly influence ADHD service provision in their region, which has felt empowering and been really welcomed.

The network has been able to share lived experience of being Neurodivergent with many different teams, including frontline staff in adult social care, supporting their social workers induction process. Network members have also hosted ADHD drop-ins, sharing information and providing increased peer support for Neurodivergent staff during recent national medication shortages. The network also contributes to steering groups that discuss, review and enact change for the organisation by feeding into relevant Boards, including the Workforce Wellbeing Group and the Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) action group.

The network co-produced and delivered a series of EDI forums across a range of topics. These topics included ‘healthy workplace culture’, ‘supporting employees who are carers’, ‘neurodiversity is about all of us’, and ‘levelling up recruitment, retention and disability’. The forums were attended by staff across the organisation, external experts and people with lived experience, enabling rich and important discussions to take place and resulting actions to be taken forward by the organisational development and Inclusion team.

Through these activities the network has increased awareness of the lived experience of disabled people and carers across the council as well as supporting relevant initiatives and organisational change. As a result the council has increased learning opportunities and created bespoke guidance for employees, such as ‘neurodivergent workspace support’ and information on ‘Access to Work’. Other processes that have been made more streamlined include ordering accessible software via IT and ensuring that managers have a range of tools to support employees. The organisation now has secured Disability Confident scheme status, campaigned for internally through corporate structures.

The network has also had a positive impact on working relationships as a whole -bringing people together from across the organisation to collaborate and work together.

The barriers

One key barrier has been encouraging staff to be open and honest and feel safe talking about their lived experience. Another barrier has been trying to talk about this work in a political and corporate environment and making it ‘fit’ within what is already being done through corporate structures.

In addition, getting messages out to all staff within the council - in particular frontline staff – has been a challenge. This is primarily because all Disabled Staff Network members are working on this around their paid roles and can’t always prioritise the management of the network. The network doesn't have a budget or funds to create marketing materials and network members don’t always have the time to dedicate to creating resources and to reaching out to people.

The enablers

The network leads report generally feeling well supported by their line managers and the director of people, and by the improving and increasing narrative around equality, diversity and inclusion within the Council.

The organisational development and inclusion team have been incredibly helpful to the network and have ensured consistent support and time throughout its development, often using their connections to unlock problems or to put things on the senior leadership team's radar for action.

This organisational support has provided an environment where this work is encouraged and the psychological safety of the Disabled Staff Network members within the council has increased, enabling staff to feel more able to speak about this work with others and seek support with any issues.

How is the new approach being sustained?

The work is currently being sustained through the time and passion of the people involved. It should be noted that network leads are not paid for the time which they devote to the staff network, and this is perhaps an issue with sustainability. Network leads are keen to take advantage of support from sector partners such as the Local Government Association to allow them to seek strategic advice and share their learnings with others.

Lessons learned

One of the key takeaways from East Riding Council is that the director of people supported the network leads to create a culture that has allowed greater ‘psychological safety’ in talking about disability, and their supportive line-managers have been vital enablers in supporting both staff members to expand the network within their roles.

The network leads have the following advice for anyone interested in setting up or growing a similar network and enabling it to flourish: 

  • don't be afraid to talk about disability
  • be encouraging, so that staff can have open and honest conversation
  • do what you can to encourage supportive conversations about disability amongst staff
  • don’t worry about getting your language and approach perfect before you act
  • remind people that change does not happen overnight and requires patience and support
  • be flexible in your approach
  • don't get too caught up with bureaucracy
  • listen to the voices of those with lived experience. 

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