Published on 12, July, 2020
I am totally devastated. I had a meeting planned today with my head teacher about how they could make reasonable adjustments for me at work. When I turned up it was the head and the deputy. I felt totally ganged up upon and it was as if they had planned before hand not to offer any help. They basically said that I am one of sixty staff all with their own needs and I am paid to be a teacher so I just need to get on with it.
The head kept grilling me with questions even when I had gone silent and started to cry.
I came out, drove home and had a complete meltdown. I eel awful and as if I am a great big inconvenience to the school.
It was just the worst.
I'm very sorry to read this. It very much sounds to me as if your employer is discriminating against you under the explicit terms of the Equality Act 2010. If you had a phyisical disability they would accommodate you. An educational establishment should really know better than this as they presumably have some similarly affected pupils. As has been said already, you should approach your union if you are in one. Otherwise seek some form of legal help. Go to Citizens Advice, or even contact ACAS. Here is the Equality Act https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/contents
That's a big scary document. What bit should I be looking at ?
Holy crap! For a document that aims to ensure equality for people with disabilities (among others) that is one mother-fxxing impenetrable document...!!!
There's this: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/6 which sets out what is meant by a disability, specifically:
(1) A person (P) has a disability if—
(a) P has a physical or mental impairment, and
(b) the impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on P's ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.
Then this https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/20 which covers the duty to make adjustment, specifically:
(1) Where this Act imposes a duty to make reasonable adjustments on a person, this section, sections 21 and 22 and the applicable Schedule apply; and for those purposes, a person on whom the duty is imposed is referred to as A.
(2) The duty comprises the following three requirements.
(3) The first requirement is a requirement, where a provision, criterion or practice of A's puts a disabled person at a substantial disadvantage in relation to a relevant matter in comparison with persons who are not disabled, to take such steps as it is reasonable to have to take to avoid the disadvantage.
(4) The second requirement is a requirement, where a physical feature puts a disabled person at a substantial disadvantage in relation to a relevant matter in comparison with persons who are not disabled, to take such steps as it is reasonable to have to take to avoid the disadvantage.
(5) The third requirement is a requirement, where a disabled person would, but for the provision of an auxiliary aid, be put at a substantial disadvantage in relation to a relevant matter in comparison with persons who are not disabled, to take such steps as it is reasonable to have to take to provide the auxiliary aid.
There's a whole schedule (13) dedicated to Education but it looks like that's aimed at students - I guess teachers would be covered by the 'Employment' regulations...
TBH it's massive and complicated & I've just skimmed it looking for the obvious bits... you probably need to refer to someone with specific knowledge in this area...
This page on NAS might be a good starting point to refer your employer to: https://www.autism.org.uk/professionals/employers/information-for-employers/managing.aspx
Plus the info here: https://network.autism.org.uk/knowledge/insight-opinion/top-autism-tips-employment-reasonable-adjustments
thank you so much for this! I'm going through a lot of trouble at work at the moment. They are saying they've made a lot of adjustments for me and provided a lot of support, but they haven't at all. I've proven I can do the work, and have emails and letters in which they've praised my work in the past. I just need an environment that I am relaxed and comfortable in without people making loads of noise around me and away from strong smells and I'm fine. There are empty offices so I don't think it's unreasonable. As time goes on with me being forced to sit with constant sensory overload I can feel everything getting a lot worse for me, and in the past when this has happened I've ended up either in loads of trouble or walking away from everything and everyone and not being able to return.