Who decides what reasonable adaptations are?

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And do you think these are reasonable?

Providing IT equipment, special desk and chair, and total cost £4000

Excusing employee from one task, which is usually about 20% of the workload for that role. It's a unpopular task and other team members would have to pick up the difference

3 x physio sessions pw in work time.

I'm asking because I'm part of the team and there has been some unrest. I'm fully supportive of the employer doing what they can to accomodate the disability and am very much "there but for the grace of God", but am genuinely unsure how much impact that should be allowed to have on the other staff. I'm sure employer will take advice, this is more for informal opinions.

FWIW colleague has recently joined and didn't disclose these issues (why should she?). It's not a new or worsening disability during the employment iyswim

Actually yes she should disclose the issues if she is dependent on bringing up the equality act to meet reasonable expectations.

Issues such as IT adaptations etc may be able to be covered by access to work dependent on the size of the company and the number of employees. Wanting to be absolved of 20% of the job when she hadn’t disclosed her disability would be at the employer’s discretion and given she didn’t disclose and the disability hasn’t been acquired during her time there they would be within their rights to say no.

It’s all dependent on the employer. We’re very accepting of reasonable adjustments but those would probably be unworkable for us.

We had a request for adjustments that would have involved employing a highly qualified helper and software at a cost of over £100k per year. That was also turned down.

What's 'reasonable' is highly variable. Where I work the equipment wouldn't be an issue but the physio seems like a lot of time off unless it's time limited plus I think giving up a task would make want to see something else picked up instead.

If you're struggling to cover the specific task and general workload due to the physio raise it with your line manager. Management need to consider backfill arrangements and whether they're reasonable given the other costs.

I imagine a lot of this would be very difficult for a small team

Do you have occupational health support ? Depending on the nature of the need that may well be reasonable but what is the absence policy for hospital appointments?

Well I’d say that if it’s an office job the physio time off can be made up at other times? I had physio for a while after an injury and used flexi time for it.
Excusing 20% of the workload is going to have to involve some give and take if it is 100% necessary. What will they pick up instead?

Equipment I think is totally fair enough.

Reasonable as it's a one off payment: Providing IT equipment, special desk and chair, and total cost £4000

Unreasonable if it was part of the job description, mentioned at the interview: Excusing employee from one task, which is usually about 20% of the workload for that role.

Entirely at the employer digression as it would depend on how long and if it is paid time: 3 x physio sessions pw in work time.

That is, of course if the disability has been disclosed, even if it was just on that dreaded equality form. (Otherwise, the new employee would be a liar....)

Equipment - reasonable

Task - if there is no way it can be performed with adjustments, as it is a relatively small proportion of your workload, I would say it's reasonable to excuse the colleague and give her another task instead

Physio - not reasonable in my view, unless you have a specific HR policy that provides for this generally. She should make the time up. It would be reasonable to allow her some flexibility in start and finish times to accommodate her sessions taking place outside office hours

It's not an office job, hard not to give too much away but the working day is the working day, so very little opportunity to be flexible with hours.

20% is one day per week, so that seems lot to me. It may be possible to swap the task but that would mean someone else has to do the unpopular job two days instead of one (or everyone takes an extra turn every 3-4 weeks)

The physio is an appointment which they must be allowed to attend but has no right to be paid for.

The 4K would be covered under A2W providing she applies within the first 6 weeks.

The 20% thing is the most difficult one - personally I wouldn’t apply for a job that I couldn’t do. Is it something like answering the phone?

I don’t disclose my disabilities until either occupational health ask or day one of the job if they don’t. I have been actively discriminated against, so I have a lot of empathy for them and dont blame her/him for not disclosing.

Do you mean disclose to the employer, or to you as a colleague?

Also, how would you know if she had disclosed them during the recruitment process or not?

Everyone taking an extra turn every 3 - 4 weeks would seem the most sensible option (unless you uncover someone who wouldn't mind doing a regular extra day).

How long would the physio appointments take your colleague out of the workplace per session? Has she said how this was managed in her previous job?

My ft job is advising employees and employers on RA. Doesn't matter a jot when she disclosed it and whether or not it was in writing.

Without knowing the exact details I can't specifically say but I can tell you that a 20% reduction in workload and certain tasks being excluded are standard accomodations. It's nothing to do with the employee how the manager redistributes tasks. They shouldn't be at a disadvantage because other staff aren't empathetic.

In regards to the cost of equipment, that's irrelevant to everyone but who's footing the bill. A lot of that, if not all, can be claimed back via Access to Work.

It wasn't disclosed to the employer. Our process is that you complete a declaration either saying you do or don't require adjustments. She declared yes, which leads to a telephone assessment by Oh. She only mentioned a very minor one which oh assessed and said she was fit for the job. Since she started there seems to be a new requirement and a longer list of conditions everyday. (3 weeks)

The employer makes the decision although the employee is able to request and ask for things they feel will help them. Ultimately it could come down to a tribunal if it went that far and the employee believed the employer was able to do certain things but refused to do so.

How do you know this best? Quite frankly it’s none of your business and a massive breach of privacy unless a) you manage her or b) she has told you this.

Are you her employer, manager or one of the colleagues feeling put out? If the latter you sound overinvolved and somewhat unsupportive.

It sounds as though it would be best to ask for another, more in-depth, OH consultation to look at how best to accommodate the conditions she has disclosed since the phone assessment. Perhaps she would feel more comfortable and able to be open about the full extent of her condition if a face-to-face appointment could take place?

OH can ask her permission to get input from her own doctor - obviously, she might decline this, but it might be useful in determining an approach to the physio sessions.

I agree with TrippingTheVelvet that excluding the 20% task is something that would be commonplace as an adjustment, as would provision of specialist equipment.

Finding an approach to the physio that is fair and reasonable sounds like the biggest challenge, and in your position I'd be getting support from the experts in OH (or your disability adjustments team if you have one).

A lot of people don't disclose during the recruitment process despite being asked simply because they know they'll not get the job otherwise. They wait to they have the offer of employment first when it can't be rescinded. Or maybe try it first to see if they can do it without accomodations. Or even just to they work up the confidence.

I certainly wouldn't accept someone just announcing they need 4k of equipment though. They should be referred back to OH and their opinion sought on whether it's necessary. If it is, the company need to decide if spending £4000 would detrimentally impact on the business/put it at risk if they aren't eligible to claim it back.

Surely the physio is one of the most easy aspects? The EA is quite clear, you must be allowed to attend appointments/therapies relating to your disability but there is no onus on employers to pay the employee for that time. Therefore it’s in everyone’s interests for the appointment to be first/last thing or during a lunch break.

I'm just a colleague but I've been involved in some of the discussions on how we can best support her. I don't know anything she didn't tell me.

If she’s only been there 3 weeks there is plenty of time for an A2W application still which will be fully covered providing there is no business advantage. So it’s in the workplace’s best interest to get the employee applying ASAP.

A2W do the assessment and agree what will be covered, then prescribe exactly what should be bought. They shouldn’t go ahead and buy it without following the process.