Royal Mail: Delivering easier ways to work for disabled peop

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http://www.news.royalmailgroup.com/news ... royal_mail

Royal Mail Group has formed a new partnership with the Department for Work and Pensions as part of the Jobcentre Plus Access to Work programme, which aims to make it easier to bring more of the 6.8 million disabled men and women of working age into employment.

Access to Work currently helps thousands of workers and their employers to overcome barriers resulting from disability by offering practical advice and funding.

Royal Mail will build on the successful scheme by creating a dedicated national team which will respond to managers’ questions relating to the recruitment or the ongoing needs of disabled employees.

Working within a new ‘one-stop-shop’ Accessibility Resource Centre, advisors will support individual team leaders with the application process. Royal Mail will also pay all claims under £1,000 incurred under the scheme, including premises adaptation, travel and ongoing support workers, and will share any costs in excess of this with Access to Work.*

In the past, some employers have struggled to take advantage of the benefits of the scheme, but it is hoped that Royal Mail’s pilot will streamline the process considerably, galvanizing other business leaders to invest in similar, simplified arrangements.

Kay Allen, Head of Social Policy and Inclusion at Royal Mail Group, said: "Facilitating the employment of disabled workers is a key priority for us as a diversity-aware business. The best way to do this is to make it as easy as possible for our people to become "disability confident".

"We’re aiming to use this pilot to demonstrate new ways in which large employers can take advantage of the Access to Work scheme: helping to ease some of the country’s 3.3 million economically inactive disabled people into work."

Royal Mail hopes this initiative will add to its efforts to improve employment opportunities for disabled people - both internally and across the UK. The programme’s champions range from Royal Mail Group Chief Executive Adam Crozier - also chairman of the national Employer Forum on Disablity - to those Royal Mail employees already benefiting from Access to Work.

Alex Wyatt, a Deaf Awareness trainer at Royal Mail, said: "Many Royal Mail employees, including myself, owe our jobs to the Access to Work scheme, but we think we can do more to help colleagues focus on getting disabled employees on our payroll."

ENDS

Issued by Royal Mail press office,
148 Old St,
London,
EC1V 9HQ

To request more information, please contact Jenny Holt, Jenna Frost or Chris Lauwerys on 020 7260 2700, or e-mail royalmail@bluerubicon.com

Notes to Editors

*As part of the partnership with Royal Mail, Access to Work has agreed to provide a dedicated account manager to deal with enquiries from the organisation’s Accessibility Resource Centre. It has also agreed to accept Royal Mail eligibility tests, offer advice on solutions to workplace disability challenges, process applications in 30 days and feedback on progress.


Facts about disability

• Over 11 million people in the UK have an impairment and it is estimated that this will rise to 20 million by 2025. That works out at about half a million newly disabled people every year.
• Most disabled people develop their impairment during their working life. This means that the number of potential employees and customers with impairments is growing fast.
• There are 140,000 blind and partially sighted people of working age. However, recent research shows that two thirds are unemployed.
• 74 per cent of employers are unaware of the vital support provided by the Access to Work scheme with any extra costs when employing a disabled person.

About Access to Work

Access to Work is an advisory service run by Jobcentre Plus which can be used by both employers and disabled employees for advice and information to help overcome any difficulties arising from disability in the workplace or while applying for a job.

It also provides grants for disabled workers who are starting employment or continuing it in order to help cover the excess costs to employers of taking on disabled staff.

At the moment, around 28,500 people use the service.

About Alex Wyatt

Alex joined Royal Mail as an apprentice two years ago, having previously tried various roles in High St retail.

During his apprenticeship he learnt different skills at the company, and his time as a postman in Battersea gave him an insight into the advice his managers needed if they were to recruit, retain and integrate disabled people into existing roles. Alex now runs awareness training across the business to promote better understanding of the needs of deaf people.

Passionate about the work he does, he believes the real challenge is helping managers to overcome initial misgivings about adjusting working practices for disabled people, so the new Accessibility Resource Centre comes as good news.

Alex’s own career trajectory shows what the Access to Work scheme can achieve for individuals. Over the busy Christmas period he will be an acting work area manager, potentially supervising a team of up to 60 hearing people.

"With the right support in place from the start, anything is possible for workers like me. We’re positive that Royal Mail managers will be leading by example - whether it’s just learning to sign hello in British Sign Language, or helping disabled employees tackle the daily post round with confidence. If colleagues are free to think about the people rather than the paperwork, we can really work on creating a cultural shift across the organisation and the UK, helping the general workforce learn more about issues related with disability."