Contents
Government silence over missing £65 million of rail access funding 5
Disabled tribunal member takes step towards legal action against DWP over years of ‘persecution’ 6
Accessibility standards at airports slump, despite regulator claiming they have improved 8
Social model support scheme that tackles barriers secures nearly £600,000 funding 11
Coffee shops must act to end ‘pervasive humiliation’, says stammering charity 12
Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week 14
DWP told PM’s civil servants fears about universal credit safety were ‘misplaced’… then three claimants died
Three deaths of disabled people who took their own lives were linked to flaws within the universal credit system, despite the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) previously dismissing fears about the safety of “vulnerable” claimants as “misplaced”.
A report by the Prime Minister’s Implementation Unit (PMIU) in 2019 had recommended that DWP should check that a “minimum level of support” for vulnerable claimants was available across jobcentres, and that it should test that its staff were aware of policy changes.
But DWP told the unit in 2019 that these concerns were only being raised by “stakeholders” and that “the evidence for problems was weak and driven from a campaigning perspective, not an evidence based one”.
Work on the PMIU report was then postponed by the pandemic, and DWP decided later – probably sometime in 2021 – that the “performance” of universal credit during the Covid crisis had shown that “the fears for vulnerable customers were misplaced”.
This meant that DWP did not carry out the “assurance exercises” that would have tested the minimum level of support for disabled claimants in vulnerable situations.
In the next two years, the deaths of at least three disabled claimants of universal credit were linked to safeguarding flaws within universal credit.
On 4 March 2022, Kevin Gale took his own life after becoming overwhelmed by the universal credit application process.
The following month, a woman took her own life after being harassed by DWP over her claim.
And in June 2023, the death of Naz Anderson – due to complications following an overdose –followed six missed opportunities by DWP to record her vulnerability.
Her case had been randomly selected for a “performance measurement review” of her universal credit claim, and she was told she owed nearly £13,000 in back-payments following her husband’s death.
The deaths of Kevin Gale and Naz Anderson led to coroners sending prevention of future deaths reports to DWP, while the inquest of the other woman has not yet been held.
DWP’s comments were revealed in a decision notice (PDF) issued by the information commissioner, following a complaint made by Owen Stevens, from Child Poverty Action Group.
Stevens had been seeking the results of the assurance exercises, but the commissioner concluded that they were not carried out by DWP.
Disability News Service (DNS) revealed last year that the PMIU report had revealed significant flaws at the heart of the universal credit system and in how DWP supported claimants it saw as vulnerable.
In the last year, repeated concerns have been raised about the safety of universal credit, but neither the Conservatives nor Labour mentioned it in their election manifestos.
The new work and pensions secretary, Liz Kendall, has shown no public interest in the concerns reported by DNS.
DNS reported in May how a survey by the Commons work and pensions committee found two-thirds of DWP staff still do not have enough time to deal with safeguarding concerns “carefully” and “correctly”, despite years of deaths of benefit claimants linked with the department’s actions and failings.
Last December, a dossier of evidence submitted by the PCS union to DWP showed the department to be a failing organisation in a “state of crisis” and facing a “near collapse” of its benefits systems, with staff accusing DWP of “deliberate neglect” and revealing that claimants in vulnerable situations were “falling through the gaps” in the system.
The rollout of universal credit to the remaining hundreds of thousands of disabled people still receiving income-related employment and support allowance (ESA) will begin next month.
DWP refused this week to say if it now regretted not carrying out the assurance exercises, and whether it believed that the lives of the three claimants might have been saved if it had done so.
It also declined to say when the decision was taken not to carry out the assurance exercises, or to comment on Kendall’s apparent lack of interest in the ongoing universal credit safeguarding concerns.
But it said it had taken measures to improve safeguarding since the PMIU report was completed, including setting up a new customer experience directorate; introducing a new team responsible for “understanding, mitigating, and resolving barriers” faced by universal credit claimants; and “reinstating” a team focused on supporting DWP staff with issues around “complex needs, vulnerabilities, and individual requirements”.
It said it had also introduced advanced customer support senior leaders, who work with colleagues to support their most “vulnerable” customers and build relationships with outside organisations in the local community.
The department said it was developing a strategy to move the remaining two million households receiving “legacy” income-related benefits like ESA onto universal credit and was continuing to test how best to support claimants with this, including asking claimants about their concerns and barriers through “user researchers”.
A DWP spokesperson said in a statement: “We are committed to ensuring all customers receive the support they need from our staff and services.
“Since this report in 2019, the department has made significant changes in the support it provides to all individuals, particularly those who are vulnerable.”
Meanwhile, the new government has repeated its pre-election position on reform of the work capability assessment (WCA).
In response to a written parliamentary question, the new disability and social security minister, Sir Stephen Timms, failed to say whether the government planned to scrap the WCA.
He also provided no information on whether the government planned to press ahead with Conservative plans to cut spending on out-of-work disability benefits by tightening the WCA.
But he told Labour MP Mary Kelly Foy: “The government is committed to reforming or replacing the work capability assessment, alongside putting in place a proper plan to support disabled people into work.
“We will also give disabled people the confidence to start working without fear of an immediate benefit reassessment if it does not work out.
“More disabled people and those with health conditions will be supported to enter and stay in work, by devolving more power to local areas so they can shape a joined-up work, health, and skills offer that suits the needs of the people they serve.”
8 August 2024
Crowdfunder success means every MP will receive copy of book that lays bare decades of DWP violence
Thanks to the success of a crowdfunding initiative, every MP is to receive a copy of a book that investigates how the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) caused countless deaths of disabled benefit claimants over the last 14 years.
Organisers of the crowdfunder had hoped to raise enough money to send a copy of The Department to every Labour MP on their return from their summer break, but it has been so successful that they can now afford to send a copy to all MPs.
If the crowdfunder reaches the final “stretch” target of £7,000, they will also be able to send copies to other influential figures, educating them on “the human cost of benefit cuts”.
And they plan to use some of the funds to organise an event in parliament that will discuss the implications of the book for future social security policy and will focus on fighting the implementation of social security cuts announced by the last Conservative government.
The idea for the crowdfunder came from John McArdle, co-founder of the disabled people’s grassroots group Black Triangle, who is leading the project with fellow disabled activist and author Ellen Clifford.
They are being supported by other members of the delegation of activists from disabled people’s organisations and unions, and allies, who visited Geneva in March to hold the government to account over repeated breaches of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Among those from the Geneva delegation who have been supporting the crowdfunding campaign is Anne-Marie O’Sullivan, who has fought for justice for more than a decade for her father Michael, who took his own life in 2013 after being wrongly found fit for work.
The campaigners have warned that the new Labour government is now planning its own social security reforms, after years of harm caused by successive Conservative-led governments.
They want to educate MPs about DWP’s history ahead of those reforms.
They particularly want to ensure there is parliamentary pressure on the government to design a social security system that respects the lives of disabled people and other benefit claimants and “does not treat us with contempt and hostility and does not kill us and then hide the evidence”.
Among the comments from those who contributed to the crowdfunder, Christopher Shaw said: “Being disabled myself, I totally get what you’re trying to do, and I really hope it will be successful.
“The DWP has virtually terrorised the disabled community for years with threats and scaremongering, and it has to stop!”
Elijah-Aaron Rowan said: “MPs are often ignorant of many disabled people’s issues within the welfare system. It is often cruel and dehumanising.
“I think demanding they read what’s happening is a fantastic idea.”
And Kerensa Gaunt wrote: “This book should be required reading for Labour MPs. If we don’t remember our history, we will repeat it.”
Only this week, Disability News Service (DNS) reports how flaws within the universal credit system were linked to three deaths of disabled people who took their own lives, despite DWP previously telling civil servants that fears about the safety of “vulnerable” claimants were “misplaced” (see separate story).
The Department: How a Violent Government Bureaucracy Killed Hundreds and Hid the Evidence, by DNS editor John Pring, will be published by Pluto Press on 20 August.
It describes Pring’s 10-year investigations into how the actions of DWP, spurred on by politicians and the outsourcing industry, led to the deaths of hundreds, and probably thousands, of disabled people, and how they covered up their role in those deaths.
It includes new documents obtained from the National Archives that show how the violence inflicted on benefit claimants built slowly from the late 1980s until it exploded in the post-2010 austerity years.
It also tells the stories of some of those who lost their lives because of that bureaucratic violence, following years of dehumanisation and destitution, and the impact on their families and friends.
Dr China Mills, lead on disability justice for Healing Justice Ldn (HJL), and on HJL’s Deaths by Welfare project, has described the book as “a dark whodunnit, where a government department is the killer”.
She says it shows “how policy signed off in Whitehall can end someone’s life miles away in distance and time” and is “an essential history and a call for action and solidarity right now”.
8 August 2024
Government silence over missing £65 million of rail access funding
Both the government and Network Rail have refused to say what will happen to £65 million of funding that was allocated to improving access at rail stations over the last five years, but was never spent.
Disability News Service (DNS) revealed last week that Network Rail had apologised after admitting that the £65 million was not spent in the railway system’s last five-year “control period”, which ended in April.
Network Rail – which owns, repairs and develops the railway infrastructure in England, Scotland and Wales – had originally delayed releasing the figures until after the general election, claiming this was due to “the complexity and volume of the information requested”.
The figures, released in response to a freedom of information request, show that the Department for Transport (DfT) allocated £350 million for 2019-2024 for the Access for All programme, but only £285 million was spent over those five years.
Access for All was launched by the last Labour government in 2006, and funds access improvements at stations across Britain.
Last week, DfT left it to Network Rail to comment on the Access for All figures.
Disability News Service (DNS) approached DfT on Monday morning to ask it to clarify what would happen to the unspent money, and for a guarantee that the funding would now not be lost.
But despite repeated attempts at securing a response from the department, it refused to answer those questions or produce a statement about the missing £65 million.
Instead, it insisted – as background information – that it was committed to improving access to the rail network and would eventually provide updates on the Access for All programme.
Last week, Network Rail said it had “experienced challenges with some of the more complex improvements, which means some schemes have taken longer than planned, and we were not able to spend all of the funding in the last five years”.
But this week, Network Rail has refused to clarify what will happen to the missing £65 million.
Instead, a Network Rail spokesperson said in a statement: “We are carrying out a comprehensive review into our accessibility schemes with the Department for Transport so we can better deliver for our passengers.
“We are so sorry for the delays and we know the impact this has had on people.
“We are working as hard as we can to get them back on track, using funding from the government’s Access for All pot and Network Rail’s existing budgets.”
In 2022, a report by the government’s advisers on accessible transport, the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee, concluded: “At current annual rates of investment spend on station accessibility, it will take around 100 years to make the entirety of the station estate step-free to new-build standards.”
Also in 2022, rail operators told a research organisation that only “major” government funding would solve the accessibility problems at stations across the country.
8 August 2024
Disabled tribunal member takes step towards legal action against DWP over years of ‘persecution’
A disabled woman who sits on a social security tribunal is set to take legal action against the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for breaching the Human Rights Act, after years of “persecution” over her benefits.
Katherine*, who continues to sit on the tribunal, decided her only option was to prepare a legal claim against DWP for its repeated and “significant failures” that have left her in significant mental distress and have driven her repeatedly to the brink of suicide.
She has now sent a legal letter of claim to the department as the first formal step towards legal proceedings.
She claims the department is responsible for “inhuman and degrading treatment”, discrimination, and a breach of her right to a private and family life under the act.
In its latest move, part of what she is believes is – at best – a “catalogue of incompetence”, or even a campaign of “persecution”, the department has stopped all her benefits, without telling her what it had done.
She has repeatedly told DWP of her history of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts, as well as her diagnosis of PTSD due to domestic violence.
But she says the department keeps making mistakes over the simple rule that covers benefit claimants who sit on tribunals, despite her informing them repeatedly that she is “actively suicidal”.
In May, a DWP spokesperson told DNS that it apologised for any distress it had caused, but it has never apologised directly to her.
Katherine, who has a law degree and has passed the legal practice course, was a justice of the peace (a lay magistrate) for 15 years and applied for a position as a disability qualified member of the social security tribunal in 2017.
Since 2014, she has been in the support group of employment and support allowance (ESA), which would usually place a strict limit on how much she can earn every week under its permitted work rules.
But because she is a tribunal member, those rules do not apply to her.
She lives in the south-west of England and started working as a disability qualified panel member of the first-tier tribunal in December 2018, sitting on a panel with a judge and a medical member and hearing benefit appeals.
She initially wrote to DWP before she started working with the tribunal to check if the part-time tribunal role was allowed under permitted work and what impact it would have on her ESA if she took it up, but the department never replied to her letter.
She was soon told by her judicial mentor about a DWP regulation that allowed ESA claimants working as tribunal members to work a maximum of one full day or two half days a week, and still receive their full ESA entitlement.
Ever since, she has kept strictly under that limit.
But within weeks, DWP was sending her letters telling her she had exceeded the permitted work limits – which appeared to be based on a fundamental misunderstanding of their own rules – deducting money from her ESA payments and fining her £50.
In a period of just over a year, she was sent 15 different entitlement, overpayment and civil penalty decisions by DWP.
All but one of these decisions were later conceded by DWP or set aside by the first-tier tribunal, she says.
Since DNS reported on her case in May, DWP has continued to insist that Katherine is mistaken in her reading of the law, despite the regulations – and two tribunal judgments – apparently making it clear that she is correct.
Now, just two months after the article, DWP has removed her ESA, despite promising not to do this until the dispute over the regulation was resolved.
She only found out what it had done through a call from her local council, which left her “shaking”.
She said: “I feel sick as I don’t know how I will be able to get my income back and I am on my own. It takes years to go through appeal.”
She said DWP’s actions had forced her to take a formal step towards legal action under the Human Rights Act.
She said: “How else can I end DWP’s persecution against me?
“I just want them to stop causing me so much harm and to treat me in accordance with the law.”
A DWP spokesperson said: “We are currently reviewing the details of this case.”
*She has asked to remain anonymous
8 August 2024
Accessibility standards at airports slump, despite regulator claiming they have improved
Accessibility standards at airports across the UK have slumped over the last year – and in comparison with pre-pandemic levels – despite the regulator claiming they have improved.
The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) issued an annual report yesterday (Wednesday) that showed that 11 airports were rated “very good” for accessibility, 12 airports were rated “good”, and five airports were rated as “needs improvement”.
It claimed that this showed “standards increasing” as no airports had been given a “poor rating”, while a senior executive said its report showed that “progress is being made” and the headline of the press release stated: “Improvements in airport accessibility continues since pandemic…”
But because of the impact of the pandemic, CAA was unable to produce figures that would allow a direct comparison with last year’s figures.
Last year’s report showed only how every airport had been assessed in each quarter, without offering a rating for the whole year.
And those figures show that, in the last quarter of 2022-23, every one of the airports assessed – apart from London Heathrow – was given a “very good” rating, although passenger numbers were lower than this year.
In this year’s report, only 11 of 28 airports were rated “very good”.
And of those rated in both 2019-20 and 2023-24, eight had a lower rating this year, while just three had a better rating than four years ago.
The report does note that demand for assistance at airports has increased, with 1.69 per cent of passengers now seeking support from staff in airports to help them travel, compared with 0.94 per cent in 2010 and 1.35 per cent in 2019.
This, combined with a post-pandemic increase in passenger numbers, means the number of requests for assistance from passengers departing, arriving, or connecting at a UK airport has risen from 3.68 million passengers in 2022-23 to 4.45 million in 2023-24.
The five airports said to need to improve accessibility were London Gatwick, Bristol, Cardiff Wales, Liverpool and Norwich.
CAA also included results from its 2023 aviation consumer survey, which showed satisfaction with the overall travel experience falling by eight per cent for disabled people between November 2019 and October 2023, with just 74 per cent of disabled passengers now satisfied.
And, the report added, the gap in satisfaction between disabled passengers and non-disabled passengers has increased since 2019 “at every single customer journey touchpoint except passport control and immigration”.
The report was published alongside three “deep dive accessibility assessments”, which were carried out at Heathrow, London Stansted, and London Luton.
Heathrow and Luton had been rated in the main report as “good”, while Stansted was rated “very good”.
But despite those ratings, the deep dive assessments found multiple failures at each airport.
Among the concerns at Heathrow was the failure to provide relief areas for assistance dogs within terminals two and four.
It also found that 15 of the call points that are used by disabled passengers to request assistance were out of order; there were no “out of order” signs on the call points, but there was a notice with a phone number to call the assistance provider.
And when CAA examined a sample of 20 complaints made by disabled passengers, none of those that reached “deadlock” were referred by Heathrow to the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution, as they should have been.
There were also no low-level counters at Heathrow’s assistance desks.
At Stansted, which was rated “very good”, among the concerns raised by CAA was that the assistance dog relief areas were not signposted, and “multiple” call points did not have seating nearby in case disabled passengers needed to wait for assistance to arrive.
As with Heathrow, deadlocked complaints were not “routinely” referred to the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution.
Among the concerns at Luton – which was rated “good” – there was no quiet route for neurodivergent passengers to avoid the busy duty-free area, while CAA could not find information on the airport’s website on how to obtain replacement mobility equipment if a passenger’s has been damaged or lost.
CAA’s failure to call out the industry for its deteriorating performance on accessibility comes less than a fortnight after a Channel 4 documentary exposed the repeated discrimination faced by disabled air passengers.
That documentary, presented by disabled broadcaster Sophie Morgan, investigated the abuse, dehumanising treatment, damaged equipment and even physical harm experienced by wheelchair-users who travel by air.
CAA did not comment on the documentary after it was broadcast.
The concerns over accessibility will come as no surprise to disabled people who have repeatedly reported their own concerns about air travel in recent years, often on social media.
Two years ago, two prominent disabled campaigners were failed by assistance services at Gatwick and Manchester within 24 hours.
In the same month, two British Airways cabin crew who worked on flights in and out of Heathrow described passenger assistance services at the airport as an “absolute shambles”, with waits of up to 90 minutes for disabled passengers who wanted to leave their plane.
The previous month, Gatwick had to apologise to disabled journalist Victoria Brignell after she was left on a plane for more than 90 minutes after it landed.
At the time, CAA refused to comment on those and other failures.
8 August 2024
Social model support scheme that tackles barriers secures nearly £600,000 funding
A peer support scheme that has helped hundreds of disabled people in a single borough with the barriers they face in their daily lives has secured nearly £600,000 in funding over the next five years to continue its work.
Inclusion Barnet’s Touchpoint Peer Support scheme provides disabled people with one-to-one support from other disabled people to help them with up to five goals they want to achieve.
Up to last August, the north London scheme had helped more than 750 disabled people access education, social care, access to the local community or other support, with even more helped in the last year.
Now the extra funding is set to help another 800 people in the borough over the next five years.
In contrast with some traditional mental health peer support schemes, which tend to focus on “recovery”, Touchpoint is based on a social model approach that focuses on “dismantling barriers and helping people access the local services or community resources they need”.
The peer support worker works one-to-one with the disabled person over 12 weeks to help them address the barriers preventing them reaching their goals.
The service – which is open to anyone living, working or studying in Barnet – has been running since 2018, with financial support from the National Lottery and Barnet council.
Caroline Collier, Inclusion Barnet’s chief executive, said: “It’s reaching a whole cohort of disabled people who might not necessarily hit the thresholds for statutory support, but might equally not find what they need within universal services.
“So there’s a kind of group in the middle, who could otherwise end up really under-served.”
Others who benefit are those with higher support needs, who have tried and failed to engage with services, often because of the attitudinal barriers they are confronted with.
Among those who have benefited from Touchpoint are a disabled person with a learning difficulty who did not think they could access further education but was supported to take a college course.
Others have been helped with their benefits, or to leave bed and breakfast accommodation and find stable and accessible housing.
Sometimes, it is as simple as signposting someone to support they were not aware of within the community.
Another disabled person would never leave his home alone and never wanted to, but now – thanks to support from Touchpoint – he enjoys a daily walk around his neighbourhood.
Keely Parnaby, Inclusion Barnet’s head of peer services, said: “It can be as simple as that; enjoying the kind of rights the rest of us – who don’t face the same barriers – expect to have.”
In June, the scheme heard that The Henry Smith Charity had agreed three years’ funding worth nearly £180,000.
And the National Lottery has now confirmed another £395,000 funding for Touchpoint over five years.
The two awards, as well as continuing smaller-scale funding from the council, will guarantee Touchpoint’s survival.
Collier said Inclusion Barnet was grateful to the National Lottery, Henry Smith, and the council.
8 August 2024
Coffee shops must act to end ‘pervasive humiliation’, says stammering charity
A disabled people’s organisation is calling on coffee shops to do more to avoid the “pervasive humiliation” faced by many customers who stammer when they try to place their order.
Many people who stammer can be rushed, ignored and even mimicked when they try to order a coffee, says STAMMA.
The charity wants coffee shops to overhaul their practices, train their staff and provide alternative ways of ordering that are accessible to people who stammer.
More than 1,500 people (including 700 who stammer) responded to a STAMMA survey earlier this year about their experiences of customer service in cafes and restaurants.
Those who stammer were nearly twice as likely as non-stammerers to say that they sometimes do not order what they want to eat or drink.
And of this group, 90 per cent said the main reason was their speech.
A key barrier they face is being asked for their name so staff can call it out when the order is ready.
The survey found that 83 per cent of those who stammer said they found it hard to say their name on demand.
Being asked to say your name when you order a coffee is standard practice in Starbucks.
One person who stammers told the charity: “Having to order coffee in Starbucks because family wanted to go!
“They always ask for a name, which for a lot of people who stammer is a nightmare.
“On my own I can potentially give a different name, but with family and friends I don’t feel comfortable doing so.
“I struggle to get my name out, get something odd written on the cup, and then hear them laughing and making comments to a colleague, which just makes my embarrassment even worse.”
Another said: “I was ordering my usual from my local café: an oat milk latte.
“Oat can be a tricky word for me and this time, I struggled with it. The staff member snorted with laughter until I finally managed to say the word.”
And another person who stammers told the charity: “I wanted to order a new coffee which had been advertised and a brownie from behind the glass counter.
“I knew I would struggle asking for both items so instead ordered an americano and grabbed a pre-packed cake that I didn’t need to ask for.”
Jane Powell, STAMMA’s chief executive, said: “We’re calling on the major brands to make such a mundane task accessible for people who stammer.
“We’re looking for basic training to be put in place so that coffee shop staff can recognise when someone is stammering and don’t behave in a manner which is potentially litigious.”
STAMMA has produced a new guide for managers in coffee shops to help them provide a better experience for customers who stammer, or have other speech disfluencies, such as people whose speech has been affected following a stroke or due to Parkinson’s.
It is also keen to hear from more people who stammer about their coffee shop experiences.
The latest action is part of STAMMA’s Space to Stammer campaign, which aims to create a culture where customer-facing companies and businesses naturally consider stammering.
Neither Starbucks nor Costa Coffee had responded by 11am today (Thursday) to requests to comment on the campaign.
8 August 2024
Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week
Growing numbers of vulnerable people receiving care are challenging deprivation of liberty (DoL) orders that can mean they are locked up or kept under restrictive supervision. DoL orders are meant as a last resort but campaigners say the increase shows that too often people’s freedoms are restricted as a cheaper option. DoL challenges for adults made to the court of protection in England jumped to 653 in the first quarter of 2024, a 31 per cent rise on 2023, according to Ministry of Justice figures: https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/aug/04/deprivation-of-liberty-orders-england-cuts-public-services
The system set up to support children in England who have special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is in “utter disarray” and requires a complete overhaul, the local government ombudsman has said. In an interview with the Guardian, Amerdeep Somal, whose role is to investigate complaints about council services, including SEND, said: “The system is simply not working for children, families or local authorities”: https://www.theguardian.com/education/article/2024/aug/04/special-educational-needs-system-england-utter-disarray-ombudsman-amerdeep-somal
A campaigner has described a decision to cut a disability allowance in Norfolk as “sad and depressing”. Norfolk County Council has agreed to reduce the minimum income guarantee, which is the amount disabled people can have before they pay for their care. The move, which will save more than £1m a year, has been introduced with a “really heavy heart”, according to the Conservative-led authority: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clynnky2m28o
A primary school headteacher with multiple sclerosis has been paid damages in a landmark disability discrimination case against Ofsted, after it refused her request to postpone an inspection following a relapse in her symptoms. Kelly Vaughan, the head at Pool Hayes primary school in Willenhall, accused England’s schools watchdog of failing to put in place reasonable adjustments. Ofsted apologised for the distress caused and has since agreed to introduce mandatory equality, diversity and inclusion training for inspectors and other staff: https://www.theguardian.com/education/article/2024/aug/01/headteacher-kelly-vaughan-disability-discrimination-case-ofsted
A woman whose job offer with Police Scotland was withdrawn because she was taking antidepressants is taking her case to an employment tribunal this month. Laura Mackenzie, from Inverness, had been sent for a medical and was due to be fitted for a uniform before the provisional offer for her “dream job” was withdrawn: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c28e9gl3wy3o
8 August 2024
News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com
