Healthcare Professionals
Reasonable Adjustments
Reasonable adjustments are a legal requirement to make sure health services are accessible to all disabled people (Equality Act 2010). This includes people with a physical disability, sensory disability, learning disability or a long-term condition such as dementia.
The NHS must make it as easy for disabled people to use health services as it is for people who are not disabled. This is called making reasonable adjustments. These could be things like:
- Making sure there is wheelchair access
- Providing easy read appointment letters
- Giving someone a priority appointment if they find it difficult waiting in their GP surgery or hospital
- Longer appointments if someone needs more time with a doctor or nurse to make sure they understand the information they are given
- A number of changes that require significant planning across the health and care team to enable access to an appointment
It is really important to listen to people, families and carers about what reasonable adjustments people might need.
By identifying the need, providing the reasonable adjustment in a timely and effective manner, documenting and sharing it, this can lead to improvements in the individuals health and wellbeing and also to:
- Build relationships with people and the families you care for
- Improve experiences of people accessing health & care
- Improve DNA rates
- Improve experience of health & care professionals
All staff have a role to play in ensuring reasonable adjustments are identified, documented and provided.
The North East & Cumbria Learning Disability Network is leading and supporting some work in relation to reasonable adjustments across the North East North Cumbria including the roll out of the Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag and Prevention of Adult Not Brought Strategies.
We have developed the Reasonable Adjustment Campaign and developed a range of posters to support our health and care services across the North East North Cumbria to raise awareness of reasonable adjustments and how they should be documented.
Please utilise the resources below to support you to provide reasonable adjustments. We will continue to build this page with resources and information.
Reasonable Adjustment Campaign Posters
Supporting Resources - Primary Care
- Supporting Healthcare in writing DNA or WNB letters
- Health & Care Passports and Flagging
- Learning Disability Clinical Leads Primary Care Health Pathways
- Annual Health Checks
- Easy read health cards
- Flu
- Covid19 Vaccination
- Tackling Diabetes
- Cancer
- End of Life & Palliative Care
- How to activate the Learning Disability health Check & Health Action Plan protocol
- North Cumbria Learning Disability Easy Read Health Action Plan v1.2
- Why do people with a learning disability sometimes not come to health appointments?
- Reasonable Adjustment Campaign Flu & Covid Poster
- An Autistic Person’s Needs at the Surgery (Final) 29th Feb 2024