1. National policy perspective
Dr Neil Churchill OBE, NHS England
Event partner

2. NHS Workforce Disability Equality Standard 2019 Disability Summit
Click on photo to play Parvin’s video story

3. What is the Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES)?
Ten evidence-based Metrics which take effect from 1 April based on 2018/19 financial year data
Enables NHS organisations to compare the experiences of Disabled and non-disabled staff.
Mandated in the NHS Standard Contract and restricted to NHS Trusts and Foundation Trusts in the first two years of implementation. Does not apply to the independent sector in first 2 years.
Voluntary for national health bodies.
CCGs – engagement is planned in 2019.
NHS organisations to publish results and develop action plans - first reports to be published by 30th September 2019.
CQC will not be inspecting WDES in the first year
The WDES is a set of ten evidenced-based metrics that will enable NHS organisations to compare the experiences of disabled and non-disabled staff.
It will compare the reported outcomes and experiences between Disabled and non-disabled staff based on 10 metrics
It will highlight at a glance the experiences of Disabled staff.
Organisations will be expected to publish the results and develop action plans to address any discrepancies.
This will enable organisations to demonstrate progress against the indicators of disability equality and introduce new measures and practices which will help improve workforce disability equality.

4. The Business Case for the WDES
Included in the NHS Long Term Plan.
UK Government pledge to increase the number of Disabled people in employment.
Research into workplace/career experience of Disabled people working in the NHS.
The ‘social model of disability’.
‘Nothing about us without us’.
The Equality Act 2010 and Public Sector Equality Duty.
Michael West’ ‘Making the difference: Diversity and inclusion in the NHS’ - levels of reported discrimination are higher against people with disabilities than any of the protected characteristics groups.
Page 86 of the Long Term Plan commits to the WDES.
In November 2017, the Government pledged to increase the number of Disabled people in employment by one million. The Government has set a target of 4.5 million Disabled people in employment by 2027.
Research undertaken by University of Bedfordshire highlights disparity in experience for Disabled people working in the NHS.
The ‘social model of disability’ recognises that it is the societal barriers that disabled people face which is the disability - not an individual’s long term condition or impairment.
The Equality Act The legal duties which underpin the WDES are set out in the Equality Act In the Act, disability is one of the nine protected characteristics. The Act strengthened the duty on employers to eliminate discrimination and advance equality of opportunity for disabled employees. 
Nothing about us without us’ is a phrase used by the disability movement to denote a central principle of inclusion: that actions and decisions that affect or are about Disabled people should be taken with Disabled people.
NHS trusts are subject to the Act – and the accompanying Public Sector Equality Duty – which sets out that may pay ‘due regard’ to eliminating unlawful discrimination, advancing equality of opportunity and fostering good relations between groups. 
Michael West report highlights that the level of reported discrimination for people with disabilities/Disabled people working in the NHS is higher than any other protected characteristic

5. Disability in NHS Trusts/CCGs
ESR data (analysed by Health Education England, as at June 2018) highlights that:
3% of staff in Trusts and CCGs are Disabled. 65% non-disabled and 32% unknown (staff either not declared or chose ‘prefer not to say’ to monitoring question)
We’ll look at declaration rates in more detail later on in the workshop.

6. The Importance of disability declaration data
Significant under reporting of the numbers of staff who declare themselves to be Disabled.
15 percentage points difference between ESR and Staff Survey declaration rates
ESR = 3%
Staff Survey = 18%
Need to improve declaration rates to build the quality of data for the Metrics, action planning and measuring progress.
Around 72% of staff (as of September 2018) have completed the disability field on the electronic staff record system (ESR).
On average 3% of people state that they are disabled on ESR, on average 18% declare that they have a disability on the NHS Staff survey- a 15 percentage points difference in the disability declaration rate.
As we highlighted earlier, 22% of the working age population is known to be Disabled. Therefore the staff survey declaration rate is more likely to be an accurate picture – whilst the ESR is significantly below that.
With less reporting on ESR, the data that is provided for the Metrics that relate to the ESR will not provide a full picture of the workforce demography, or the experiences of disabled staff in regards to the workplace or their careers.
With the Metrics being primarily data driven, it is important that Trusts work on building up declaration rates so that they have better quality data to inform their responses to the Metrics and assist them in identifying key priorities to take forward in their action plans, and measuring progress.

7. What positive outcomes will the WDES bring to the NHS?
Opportunity to ask the group for their thoughts about what positive outcomes the WDES will offer.
Following slides set out some positive outcomes we have identified.

8. Improved data
More transparency, more accurate data reporting and analysis.
Drive up the declaration rate of Disabled staff.
The collection and reporting of data will enable organisations to better understand the experiences of their Disabled staff.
More transparency, more accurate data reporting and analysis e.g, data published on NHS Trust and Foundation Trusts’ websites and in annual reports.

9. Building on progress
Organisations will be able to use the data to undertake year on year comparisons, highlighting areas of improvement and areas where further work is needed.
They will be able to compare results nationally and with other NHS Trusts and Foundation Trusts.

10. Cultural change
The data will prompt and drive NHS organisations to take action and improve the experiences of Disabled staff. As a result:
It will support the development of good practice.
Improve recruitment processes, and increase the number of Disabled staff recruited.
It will support positive change for existing employees and enable a more inclusive environment for Disabled people working in the NHS.
Builds a better knowledge base and experience about disability, adjustments for colleagues and for managers.

11. Benefits to patients
Raising awareness of disability will support improvements in patient care
Disabled staff bring expertise in health conditions and reasonable adjustments
An organisation that reflects the populations it serves will have greater awareness of it’s local communities
Disabled staff bring lived experience of a health condition and experience of using healthcare services

12. Further information and resources
WDES Technical Guidance
WDES Factsheet
WDES Quick Guide to Implementation
WDES Reporting Template
WDES Online FAQs
Case studies - best practice

13. "Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference" W. Churchill