Disability

NHS GJ achieved Disability Confident Leader status and was the first NHS Board in Scotland to achieve this status. Since that time, we have been supporting other NHS Boards to work towards becoming Disability Confident Leaders which is one of the criteria for maintaining that status. This level is reviewed every 3 years. 

Disability Confident aims to help businesses to employ and retain disabled people and those with health conditions. The scheme was developed by employers and disabled people’s representatives to make it rigorous but easily accessible. The scheme is voluntary and access to guidance, self-assessments and resources is completely free. 

Through “Disability Confident” the UK Government will work with employers to fulfil these aims and objectives: 

• challenge attitudes towards disability; 
• increase understanding of disability; 
• remove barriers to disabled people and those with long term health conditions in employment; and 
• ensure that disabled people have the opportunities to fulfil their potential and realise their aspirations. 

Further information on “Disability Confident” can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/disability-confident-campaign. 

Definitions 

Staff have the ability to self-identify as disabled and report on their disability or disabilities, using the staff engagement form when they begin employment, and eESS once they have started employment. We do not ask staff to disclose details of any disability they may identify. 

Workforce Breakdown 

A large majority of our workforce continues to identify themselves as having “No disability”, with the proportion very similar in both March 2013 (83.2%) and March 2023 (86.2%). During this time the proportion of staff that has not provided information on their disability status fell steadily from 14.1% in 2013 to 11.9% in 2018. However, 2019 saw it increase to 16.1%, with a fall back to 10.7% this year. 

It is noteworthy that the HR system’s questions about disability do not align with best practice. In this case, a list of disability categories is not presented to the user unless they first declare that they do have a disability. Best practice dictates that the questions “Are you disabled?” is answered by a “Tick all that apply” list, including broad disability categories, along with a “No disability” option. This allows a user to recognise any of their disabilities within the list. 

The proportion of staff members who identify themselves as “Disabled” has remained relatively steady over the same time period at around 1.0%, and this year it stood at 1.2%, a fall from 1.7% in 2018. While the proportion of staff who declare they have a disability is low in comparison to the general population: 32% of all adults in Scotland (Scottish Health Survey 2017), this is repeated across Boards in NHS Scotland, where 1.2% identified themselves as disabled as at 31 March 2022 (NHS Scotland Workforce Statistics release as at 31 March 2022), with a notable exception in NHS24, where 9.5% of the workforce declared a disability. 

It should be noted that some disabilities may arise during the course of employment, so unless staff are regularly surveyed we may never capture that change in information. The HR system allows members of staff to make changes to their self-identified protected characteristics at any time, including their disability status. However, as previously noted, this question is not asked in line with best practice. 

Recruitment Activity 

When asked to provide information on their disability status, the vast majority of new starters indicated that they did not have a disability (90.8%). However, five new starters (1.2%) did identify as disabled. 

Training Activity 

Members of staff who declared themselves to be disabled undertook 1.5% of all training carried out in 2022-2023, which is slightly more than the proportion of the workforce they represent. 

Career Progression 

None of the 139 members of the workforce who were promoted in 2022/2023 indicated that they had a disability. 

Leavers 

Of the 329 members of staff who left NHS GJ’s employment in 2022/2023, three declared that they had a disability, representing 0.9%% of leavers, a smaller proportion than the 1.2% of the workforce disabled colleagues represent. 

Intersectionality 

Having explored gender and disability separately, it may be insightful to examine the intersection of the two protected characteristics. Specifically, at NHS GJ, both male and female staff are equally likely not to disclose whether they have a disability, combining “Don’t know” and “No information provided”. Male staff do prefer not to disclose at a rate of 2.8%, versus 1.6% for female staff. However, as is shown in the table below, male staff are roughly twice as likely to disclose a disability as female staff, despite global disabilities and long term health conditions being more prevalent in women. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10902052/ 

Workforce Monitoring Report 2023