What is Disability Confident?
Disability Confident is a free government scheme designed to encourage businesses and organisations to employ and nurture disabled talent. The scheme sets out clear criteria which act as a practical guide for your business to follow when employing and catering for disabled staff.
There are three levels to the Disability Confident Scheme:
Disability Confident Committed (Level 1)
To be recognised as Disability Confident Committed, you must agree to the Disability Confident commitments and identify at least one action that you’ll carry out to make a difference for disabled people.
Disability Confident Employer (Level 2)
Once you’ve signed up for Level 1 you can progress to level 2, a Disability Confident Employer, by self-assessing your organisation around 2 themes:
- Getting the right people for your business
- Keeping and developing your people
Disability Confident Employers are recognised as going the extra mile to make sure disabled people get a fair chance.
Disability Confident Leader (Level 3)
By becoming a Disability Confident Leader you’ll be acting as a champion within your local and business communities.
To reach this level you’ll need to:
- Have your self-assessment validated by someone outside of your business (not including DWP employees in jobcentres)
- Provide a short narrative to show what you have done or will be doing to support your status as a Disability Confident Leader
- Confirm you are employing disabled people
- Report on disability, mental health and wellbeing, by referring to the Voluntary Reporting Framework
For more information visit the government’s guidance page here.
Why should you be Disability Confident?
By successfully meeting the scheme’s criteria, your organisation becomes recognised with Disability Confident certification. Becoming Disability Confident outwardly reflects the hard work you are doing to ensure your business engages and fosters disabled talent.
By becoming Disability Confident you can:
- Create a culture of transparency and understanding of disability
- Recruit from the widest possible pool of talent
- Secure and retain high-quality staff
- Reduce absenteeism and boost productivity
- Improve employee morale and loyalty by demonstrating fair treatment
- Reflect your commitment to diversity, equality and inclusion
What is the Microlink Disability Confident Service?
Having been Disability Confident Leaders since 2014, we have a thorough understanding of the process and are familiar requirements your organisation will face when joining the scheme.
Our Disability Confident Service offers you the chance to benefit from our knowledge. We will guide you through the process of applying and offer insight into what it is the DWP looks for when assessing applications. We will help you identify any potential pain points and consult with you on potential resolutions.
To ensure that you comfortably meet the Disability Confident criteria we also offer comprehensive insight and solutions to ensure into your organisation’s digital and physical accessibility and recruitment meet best practice levels.
What makes our Disabiity Confident service unique?
Microlink has been closely involved with the Disability Confident scheme since its inception and launch in 2014. There is no other organisation offering the same level of insight and equipped with the tools to help you become Disability Confident. In fact, our CEO, Nasser Siabi, played an important role in shaping the scheme and bringing it to fruition.
We continue to maintain close ties to the scheme and have been collaborating with DWP and fellow Disability Confident Leaders on an annual webinar series as of 2022. This close relationship allows us to stay ahead of any developments or changes in the scheme and to keep our clients well informed.
Microlink has over thirty years’ experience working with clients across public, private, charity and education sectors. We are experts in helping our clients to empower disabled people to reach their full potential by offering workplace adjustments, accessibility solutions and assistive technologies.
Our wealth of experience has seen us define best practice in many areas of accessibility. With Microlink by your side, you will be calling on our unique expertise to guide you on your journey to becoming Disability Confident.
Next steps
To enquire about engaging our Disability Confident Service or if you have any questions, please contact: microlinkteam@microlinkpc.com
