- Conference
- 2024 National Health Care Service Group Conference
- Date
- 11 December 2023
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes that a ‘reasonable adjustment’ is a change to the work environment or to a workplace policy, criteria or practice, that aims to remove or minimise disadvantages experienced by disabled employees and job applicants.
The Equality Act 2010 (and the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 in Northern Ireland) gives disabled workers the right to reasonable adjustments where they experience substantial disadvantage. Employers have a duty to provide reasonable adjustments where they know or should have known the employee was disabled.
Healthcare students are required to spend a large amount of their studies in clinical placement environments where they learn crucial skills and have their competence assessed by practice supervisors and mentors.
Healthcare students are not, however, classed as employees and some struggle to access the reasonable adjustments they require to meet the required standards on clinical placements in a supportive and timely manner. Feedback from students on the UNISON ‘Future Health Leaders’ programme has been that many future healthcare professionals are forced to drop out of training because of this.
Education providers must ensure students are able to meet the required standards of their profession. They do, however, have a duty to make reasonable adjustments to the way standards are assessed.
Students may need a range of adjustments, from physical supports to assistive software and IT help. These should be agreed with students prior to their placements, and mentors and supervisors should be ready to implement them on day one.
The recently published Long Term Workforce Plan for England envisages a large increase in the numbers of healthcare professionals we will need to educate and register in order to cope with the increasing demand for healthcare. Many more students identifying as disabled will undertake education programmes requiring reasonable adjustments and support in clinical practice, therefore it is vital that this is provided in a systematic and comprehensive fashion.
Previous survey work undertaken by UNISON has shown that:
• Many healthcare students don’t receive sufficient notice of their clinical placements to negotiate reasonable adjustments
• Some would not know where to ask for support or adjustments
• Supervisors and mentors in practice are often not given enough time to provide the support that healthcare students require
Conference calls upon the health service executive to:
1. Call for investment in training and guidance for supervisors and mentors in clinical practice who support students with disabilities
2. Undertake survey work with UNISON healthcare student members to explore the extent and nature of the difficulties they face in accessing reasonable adjustments on clinical placements
3. Campaign with the health group’s new UNISON ‘Student Advocates’ to produce and disseminate resources to healthcare students to support them to receive the necessary reasonable adjustments
4. Work with the NHS, higher education institutions and others providing clinical placement environments to update strategies and policies around reasonable adjustments on clinical placements, exploring creative solutions that give students certainty and consistency throughout their studies
5. Lobby healthcare professional regulators to issue clearer guidance around the duty to provide reasonable adjustments for healthcare students