A common reasonable adjustment is to provide a support worker during the recruitment stage. This can be a relatively low-cost solution to ensure that the candidate is given the best opportunity to demonstrate their suitability to the employer.
Some candidates may already have a support worker in place who is able to attend interviews with them and to provide appropriate support. Support workers can be a family member or friend of the candidate and, at recruitment stage, often will be.
If the candidate doesn’t have a support worker or hasn’t requested anyone in particular to assist them then you can provide a support worker through an agency. If the reason for the support falls into the category of communication support you may well be able to get funding for this via the government’s Access to Work scheme.
Support workers can provide assistance in a range of areas including:
- Reading
- Note taking
- Carrying out administrative tasks
- Accompanying (while travelling, at interview or at work)
- Counselling/mental health mentoring
- Specialist tutoring – this could be covering dyslexia, dyscalculia and dyspraxia
When providing a support worker be sure to source them from a recognised agency that carries out the appropriate checks and training. Imagine being dependent on someone else at an important event such as an interview and not being able to understand or trust that person – a potentially huge barrier.
Randstad worker support
Randstad Worker Support is the leading provider of specialist disability support workers in the UK, as well as being part of one of the largest specialist staffing organisations in the world.
Randstad Worker support can provide support workers during recruitment provided that Access to Work funding is in place or the employer is prepared to fund it. Every day more than 17,000 individuals with disabilities across the UK receive support from their national network of 4000 specialist disability support workers.
Once a referral is made to Randstad a support worker will be sourced within 48 hours and support can commence as soon as it is required by the customer. From then on Randstad would manage the entire support relationship between the customer and the support worker, including providing absence and holiday cover and finding a replacement should a change of support worker be necessary.
Click here for more information on booking a support worker.