Inclusion Barnet’s Chief Executive, Caroline Collier realised there was a “genuine hole” in people’s knowledge of the law on recruiting Disabled people, even among those who specialised in employment law.
She approached the independent employment advice and conciliation service Acas to ask if it would produce new guidance.
With support from Collier and Inclusion London's Chief Executive Tracey Lazard, Acas has now produced new guidance for employers, which makes it clear that they can “specifically advertise for and recruit a disabled person without the risk of disability discrimination”.
Caroline Collier said the law that allows employers to treat Disabled candidates more favourably by reserving roles for Disabled people – under the Equality Act – could help narrow the disability employment gap, which still hovers at around 30 per cent.
The guidance makes it clear that employers can also seek to recruit a Disabled person with a specific impairment if there is a “genuine occupational requirement” for them to do so.
Tracey Lazard said: “We welcome the clarified guidance from Acas.
They have made clear that you can specifically advertise for and recruit Disabled people to any role, without the risk of disability discrimination and without the need to demonstrate that there is an occupational requirement for a Disabled person.
You can also treat a Disabled person more favourably compared to a non-disabled person in the hiring process.
This guidance gives organisations confidence that they can prioritise people with lived experience of disability for any job role and is something that the government should be promoting and supporting, to reduce the disability employment gap and disability pay gap.”
The ACAS Guidance Using protected characteristics in recruitment is available from acas.org.uk.
For more information, see Guidance ‘will boost confidence’ of employers who want to recruit disabled people available from disabilitynewsservice.com.