1. The Disability Standard- structure, purpose and best practice
Bela Gor, Legal Director
17 March 2017

2. What is the Disability Standard
An online management tool developed by Business Disability Forum to help businesses to measure and improve on performance for disabled customers, clients or service users, employees and stakeholders.
It allows you to see how disability-smart your organisation is across the whole of your business.
Self-assessment or full evaluation.

3. Ten business areas – “criteria”
1. Commitment
2. Know how
3. Adjustments
4. Recruitment
5. Retention
6. Products and services
7. Suppliers and partners
8. Communication
9. Premises
10. Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

4. Subsections
Within each of the ten criteria, five subsections are assessed:
Lead
Policies and procedures
Delivery
Review
Advantage

5. Self-assessment Free to Members and Partners. Online.
Can access anytime.
‘Yes’ or ‘No’ answers.
Gives an automated report.
Can use this to base a full evaluation on.

6. Full evaluation Cost for Members, free for Partners.
Carries over answers from self-assessment.
Evidence is required to prove your performance.
Allocated project consultant.
After submission, two consultants evaluate a submission and write a detailed report.
Two hour debrief.

7. Why do a full evaluation?
Understand in very practical terms what 'good' looks like across your organisation, what is and isn't working, and what you need to do in order to get it right.
Recognise where you are doing well.
Have impartial, objective evidence to inform business improvement, and allocate resources accordingly.
Identify and minimise disability-related legal and reputational risk.
Get an organisation-wide disability action plan in place.

8. What does good look like?
Best practice in a disability smart organisation should be
Coherent – individual disability practices appear, not in isolation, but as part of a consistent organisation-wide approach to disability which spans all 10 criteria. 
Authentic – disability practices can be documented and verified by an independent Business Disability Forum evaluator.

9. What does good look like?
Relevant – disability is linked to the “core” organisational purpose and culture and therefore strengthens commitment to becoming “disability-smart”.
Dynamic – disability practices do not remain static but evolve in response to feedback from employees, customers, suppliers and other stakeholder groups.
Sustainable – the business value created by disability practices is well-documented and therefore helps to ensure that they are intelligently resourced and managed over a long-term period.

10. Organisations that score Gold or Silver
Have disability practices that are
Visibly endorsed by senior organisational leaders
Guided by business practices and policies; they are not ad hoc or isolated pockets of good practice
Improved over time through feedback from employees, customers and other stakeholders

11. Organisations that score Gold or Silver
Have practices that
Are developed in collaboration with and/or validated as best practice by third party organisations; and that
Create measureable value for the business e.g. reduced costs, improved products, services or improved reputation

12. Examples of best practice - commitment
Visibility and communication are key
Senior level sponsor e.g. Chief Financial Officer, Ewen Stevenson at RBS
House of Commons – role models and external sharing

13. Examples of best practice - adjustments
“There were delays in implementing adjustments caused by trying to identify a budget and authorisation e.g. to pay for specialist equipment. We reached agreement with Operations Directors for finance codes to be set up in each service line so these adjustments could be charged to a central budget and the cost spread across the whole service line rather than the specific team where the person with a disability might happen to sit. “

14. Examples of best practice - retention
A Career Progression Programme for Disabled Staff, described as “a practical and enjoyable course which helps disabled staff to plan, and take control of, their careers …As the majority of the organisation’s disabled employees are in the lower grades, the ultimate aim is to achieve a more representative number of disabled staff throughout all grades, particularly in management positions.”

15. Where do organisations struggle?
Suppliers and Partners – hence our Conference this year
Communications – not just disability “good news” stories but accessible communication for everyone

16. Advantage – what are we looking for?
Organisations that “go the extra mile” have to demonstrate more than meeting legal requirements or the “basics”
Level access in premises, an accessible website or a reasonable adjustment policy are not enough.
The best improves every year – organisations cannot stand still

17. Roll of honour - Gold Barclays (2012, 2013 and 2016)
Lloyds Banking Group (2012 and 2014) 
Microlink (2012)  
Office for National Statistics (2014)

18. Roll of honour - Silver BT (2012) EE (2016) House of Commons (2016)
Iansyst (2012 and 2013)
KPMG (2013)
Manchester Metropolitan University (2013)
RBS (2017)
Foreign and Commonwealth Office (2017) 

19. Roll of honour - Bronze Airbus (2015)
Department of Energy and Climate Change (2013)
Department of Work and Pensions (2013)
EY (2012)
Accenture (2012)
Habinteg Housing Association (2012)
HSBC (2015)
Leicestershire Police (2012)
Ofcom (2014)
Office for National Statistics (2012)
The Open University (2016)

20. Any questions? Bela Gor Legal Director Business Disability Forum
Tel: