Reasonable adjustments are arrangements or adaptations made by an employer to support Disabled and Neurodivergent staff in their role by removing barriers to ensure they are not disadvantaged by their working environment, by an employer’s policies and working practices, or through lack of access to assistive equipment or services.
Any member of staff who feels they need a reasonable adjustment can request one via their line manager, and adjustments to remove or reduce a disadvantage related to someone’s disability are required under the Equality Act 2010.
Because adjustments are specific to an individual’s need they can vary a lot from person to person. Read some common examples of reasonable adjustments.
You can find out more about reasonable adjustments, including the factors that will help to decide whether an adjustment request is reasonable, in the Supporting Disabled and Neurodivergent staff at UCL: guidance for staff and their line managers.
I feel that I need a reasonable adjustment, how do I request one?
The first step is to discuss your needs and any requested adjustments with your line manager. The process for organising staff reasonable adjustments is outlined on our website in the UCL staff reasonable adjustments flowchart (see also: UCL staff reasonable adjustments flowchart - alt text version ).Your manager may suggest using an Adjustments Passport to help facilitate these discussions and record any agreed adjustments. Completing a passport is voluntary, and you can include as much detail as you feel appropriate and specify who you would prefer it to be shared with (and in what instances). You can also take this record with you to any new role or team, or if your line manager changes.
What happens next?
Managers are encouraged to provide support for any member of staff experiencing difficulties at work, regardless of legal status, and can make use of UCL support services where appropriate.Depending on the adjustments you have discussed with your manager, they may:
Organise a management referral to Workplace Health - a report with suggested reasonable adjustments will be sent to you, your line manager and your HR Business Partner.
Organise a screening and/or Workplace Needs Assessment via the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Team - a report with recommendations will be sent to you to share with your line manager.
Organise a Personap Emergency Evacuation Plan (PEEP) in case of emergency evacuation from the building.
Your line manager will then need to consider how the adjustments will be funded. Any adjustments for equipment up to £500 should be covered by department budgets. You may need to apply to Access to Work (a government scheme run by the Department for Work and Pensions) if the funding needs for adjustments meet the following criteria:
- Specialist equipment (totalling over £1,000).
- Regular taxi fares (regardless of cost).
- Coaching and support for neurodivergent employees (regardless of cost).
Access to Work will not fund any standard office equipment (including chairs, desks, laptops etc). Where an Access to Work grant has been awarded, UCL’s EDI team manage a central Access to Work bridge fund that covers the required employer contribution by Access to Work.
The central fund can also be used to help departments fund adjustments that would be funded by Access to Work that cost over £500 but do not meet the £1,000 threshold for an Access to Work application. For eligible items that cost between £500-£1,000, the central budget will contribute towards half the costs.
Read more about funding reasonable adjustments.
Reviewing reasonable adjustments
Once reasonable adjustments have been agreed between the employee and their line manager, it may be helpful to consider recording these via the adjustments passport. If for any reason your line manager has been unable to support your requested adjustments, they should contact your area’s HR Business Partner for further advice.Your line manager should then check in with you regularly throughout the year, and in your annual appraisal, to review the effectiveness of the adjustments and check whether needs have changed.
Improving access to reasonable adjustments
As part of UCL’s Inclusive Environments Action Plan we have recently improved the process for managing building works related to reasonable adjustments to ensure they are prioritised and responded to quickly. Requests are now raised through MyCampus , and we have set up a fortnightly reporting cycle to track the progress of projects.how we’ve improved prioritisation and monitoring of Reasonable Adjustment requests.
More about inclusive environments at UCL
Visit and follow the Inclusive Environments SharePoint site to keep up to date with the progress of the Inclusive Environments Action Plan.About The UCL Knowledge
This regular series of articles aims to provide a "user’s guide" to UCL, looking at tips and tricks to make everyday tasks easier, and highlighting staff benefits, networks and opportunities. Find more articles on our ’Life at UCL’ staff page.- University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT (0) 20 7679 2000
