DISABILITY EMPLOYMENT
AT THE BBC
THE UK CONTEXT
• Legislation - Disability Discrimination Act -
1995
• Active and politicised disability movement
• Government support for employers through
Access to Work
• 11.7 million disabled people
THE DDA
• gives disabled people equal rights to
employment as well as goods and services
• no quota
• redefined disability
• lays upon employers a range of duties
• Disability Rights Commission
THE DUTY TO ADJUST
Examples from the Act and Code
• physical adjustments - buildings and
equipment
• re-allocation of duties
• transfer to a vacancy
• change in working hours
• change place of work
THE DUTY TO ADJUST
• absence for rehab, assessment,
treatment
• training
• modifying instructions and manuals
• modifying testing and assessment
• providing a reader or interpreter
• providing supervision
THE UK CONTEXT
– 18.2% of the working population is
disabled
THE UK CONTEXT
• There are over 5.5 million disabled people
of working age in the UK.
• Of these around 2.3 million are in work
• Disabled people are 3 times more likely to
be unemployed than non disabled people
BBC CONTEXT
Drivers or why have we changed?
• Legal – the DDA – particularly the duty to
make adjustments
• The BBC’s reputation as an employer of
choice
• Links between employment/audience and
output
SETTING THE FRAMEWORK
• Strategy
• Policy
• Implementation and tools for change
• Support systems
STRATEGY
Objectives:-
– Increase numbers of disabled people in
the work force
– Achieve best practice
–Meet the BBC’s legal obligations
POLICY
• Guidelines on Employing Disabled people -
created through consultation - some 200
individuals within the BBC - includes the
BBC’s commitments under the DDA2
• Agreed by Execo.
WHAT IS COVERED
• Recruitment (advertising, short-listing,
interviewing and appointing)
• Training (access to and selection for)
• Promotion (selection)
• Redundancy (selection)
• Retention
IMPLEMENTATION
Review current polices and procedures in the
light of the new policy so:-
 
recruitment practice
•
medical questionnaires
•
job descriptions
•
advertising policies
 
redeployment
TOOLS FOR CHANGE
• Training
• Extend
• Monitoring
TRAINING
• Job specific
• Mandatory for HR - so different for
recruitment, senior HR personnel, H&S,
T&D, Internal Communications etc.
• Managers
• Responding to need - e.g. taking a Deaf
member of staff into a business unit
EXTEND
• Work placement scheme targeted at
disabled people.
• Around 40 places a year across the whole
BBC - was 12 weeks now 16.
• NOT a training scheme - the idea is to
deliver long term work
• Success rate initially over 50% - about to
do long term tracking.
EXTEND
• Affects change by bringing a mass of
disabled people into the BBC
• Encourages managers to go where they
have not been
• Run by the Diversity Centre
• Short-term (around 5 years) and then either
relocates to T&D or stops.
EXTEND
Does not remove the need to:-
• access general training schemes
• increase general recruitment
MONITORING
• Disability audit - using the definition of
disability as used by the DDA.
• Delivered on disabled staff with access
needs - have some way to go with those
who don’t have access requirements
• Currently 1.7% - around 500 individuals
MONITORING
• Application stage - +12.02%
• Shortlisted - +41.18%
• Appointments - +51.61%
Represents 2.3% of everyone being
employed in that period (47 individuals).
SUPPORT SYSTEMS
• Central funds - to prevent indirect
discrimination
• Disability Employment Adviser -
redeployment
• Disability Computer Manager - SLA with
BBC Technology
• Disability Technology Adviser (English
Regions) - broadcast focused
SUPPORT SYSTEMS
• Ergonomics Unit
• Access Unit
• Disability Adviser (Property)
FUTURE WORK
• different disabled communities have
differing life experiences – BBC policies
and procedures need to be sensitive to this.
• achieving accessible galleries
• use the BBC’s procurement power to
persuade manufacturers to make broadcast
technology accessible.
FUTURE WORK
• ensure that the links between employment,
audiences and portrayal are understood
across the BBC
• make sure that the voice of disabled people
is heard in our output.