Call for members to join new disability group

As part of an increased focus on disability inclusion at the RCPsych, the College is creating a working group to consider how to improve workplace experiences of members with both visible and invisible disabilities.

The aim is to create a more progressive and inclusive environment for College members in their workplaces, where employers are complying with equality law, meeting the needs of employees with disabilities, and offering reasonable adjustments as required.

This delivers on the College’s value of ‘respect’ and the associated behaviour to ‘promote diversity and challenge inequalities’.

The new Disability Task and Finish Group seeks to be representative of people with lived experience of physical and mental health disability as well as neurodiversity.

Aims of the Task and Finish Group

The group will be tasked with developing recommendations from the College for employer organisations to fulfil their obligations in providing reasonable adjustments for people with disabilities in the workplace.

This was identified as the priority from scoping discussions that took place earlier this year.

The Disability Task and Finish group will:

  • Review existing legislation, policies and practices relating to supporting reasonable adjustments – what is the current status quo? Where are there gaps?
  • Review appropriate reports and relevant research as well as operational policies from organisations
  • Engage and support mental health trusts to comply with current legislation
  • Produce practical recommendations for organisations to provide reasonable adjustments for doctors/psychiatrists with disabilities and support them to implement good practice.

We anticipate recommendations being published in July 2023.

Membership

We would like the group to include representation from psychiatrists – through lived or professional experience – with additional input sought from HR, disability charities or service managers, patients/ carers with positive expertise in making reasonable adjustments (a maximum of two representatives for each). Specifically we are seeking representation from:

  • psychiatrists with mental health related disabilities
  • psychiatrists with physical disabilities
  • psychiatrists who have neuro-developmental and neuro-diversity related needs.

We invite members interested in being part of this group to submit an Expression of Interest (EoI) which includes the area they would like to represent and why they have an interest to ruth.adams@rcpsych.ac.uk by Thursday 13 October. There is the potential of panel interviews depending on the numbers that reply.

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