Social Care Professionals
Set out in the Equality Act 2010 as health and care services we have a legal duty to ensure that we adapt and support people with disabilities to be able to access services in a way that they are accessible for everyone else. This includes people with a physical disability, sensory disability, learning disability or a long term condition such as dementia.
The changes we make are called reasonable adjustments. Reasonable adjustments can sometimes be very small changes such as a longer appointment time or providing information in an accessible format such as easy read. They may mean adaptions to your building such as fitting a ramp, lift or tactile signage. But they could also be quite complex and require significant planning across health and care teams.
By identifying the need and providing reasonable adjustments in a timely and effective manner it can lead to improvements in:
- Building relationships with people and the families you care for
- Improving experiences of people accessing health & care
- Improving experience of health & care professionals
It is important that all staff working in care settings understand their obligation to provide and support the people they care for in asking for reasonable adjustments. It’s really important health and care services work alongside people and families to understand the reasonable adjustments people might need and how you can support each other to provide them.
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.
A range of resources have been developed to support which can be found below, please utilise them across your organisations. We will continue to keep this page up to date with relevant resources.
