The University has a duty under the Equality Act 2010 to provide reasonable adjustments to staff with a disability, to ensure they aren’t disadvantaged compared to non-disabled staff.
Generally, these will be employees with a physical or mental impairment (disability), where the impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. They might already have had this condition when they joined the University, or it may develop while working at the University.
Definition of disability under the Equality Act 2010
Applicants shortlisted for a role are emailed an invitation to interview by the University Recruitment team. When they accept the invitation, they will be asked if they require any reasonable adjustments to allow them to participate. This information will be provided to the interview chair who, if necessary, will contact the applicant to discuss their requirements further.
Successful applicants will be asked to complete a set of online pre-employment forms. One is a Health Declaration which asks the individual they have any medical conditions or impairments that the University needs to be aware of.
If they answer ‘Yes’ they will be asked to provide details of any reasonable adjustments the University will need to consider. This information may be passed to Occupation Health for further assessment and they may provide us with potential recommendations.
Once employment has commenced, it is important the employee records any reasonable adjustments agreed with their line manager. This should be done using the ‘Reasonable Adjustments: Personal Review Form’ in MyView. Only the employee, their line manager, their line manager's manager and HR will have access to the details of the form.
For staff and Line managers, please refer to our Reasonable Adjustments SharePoint pages for further guidance on our four-step process.
Further useful links:
For feedback or queries about this page, please contact us at diversity@soton.ac.uk