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.
Some managers have absolutely no idea. They seem to think 'equality' simply means that everyone is treated the same way.
Not the case at all.
Equality means that you should be given adjustments to help negate any disability you have. And it doesn't matter how many staff they have, or how many they have with a disability.
Many meetings I have found are of the type ' We'll discuss what we have decided' rather than have meaningful consultation. Adjustments have to be reasonable to enable to enforce them - and ultimately only a tribunal can decide what is reasonable or not.
I know I have said many times that Access to Work is a good place to start, as they can both supply funding for adjustments which may fall beyond what is deemed 'reasonable' and also suggest adjustments that are reasonable which your employer would be well advised to follow. For a start, it appears that your employer could do with autism training for managers and staff and it is one of the things that Access to Work will provide funding for. You may also be able to get a support worker for a one or two sessions a month. I get two sessions of an hour and a half each per month, one to accompany me for monthly 'supervisions' (all staff have monthly supervisions to discuss work) and the other for me to discuss any problems I have whether work or not. My support worker will also act as a go between should problems at work occur, which have become very few and far between now.
Your school should have a grievance procedure, and you should consider using this. In any case you couldn't go to a tribunal at a later date unless you have gone through a grievance procedure or one is in progress. Just remember that there are time limits (three months minus one day) for putting the first stage of a tribunal, which would be 'Early Concilliation', and this would be from the date help was refused. You should consider though other methods since however much you may think you have a case, the process is very very slow and no guarantee of success. But it is there for you as a final resort, if protests seem to be falling on deaf ears.
You should also have a teacher governor whom you might be able to approach with your problem. A grievance should be heard by someone not involved, which for a school would probably be a governor (since your grievance would be with the headteacher and deputy) or it may be someone from the county council. It should not be a daunting experience, but you would need help with this in order to make the best case. Are you in a union?
If you are in a union, they may also be able to help with your Access to Work application and be with you when the assessment is done. Access Work is quite a painless application, it can be done online, and they will contact you soon afterwards and also your employer. Your employer refusing to see them would give you evidence that your employer is being unreasonable, so they are unikely to refuse and in all probability your school is already dealing with them for other members of staff. They will come into your school, interview you, and do a workplace assessment. The people who assess for Access to Work are the same companies who do PIP assessments, but do not let that put you off. They are on your side this time since the purpose of Access to Work is to keep you in employment.
Reasonable adjustments should include the right to be accompanied on many occasions when you have otherwise no statutory right. You should have been accompanied for your meeting for a start. And you should be given time to 'digest' information and questions, since a common problem for someone autistic is delayed comprehension. Firing questions and information at you is likely to cause sensory overload, so once again they should not do this. You could be given more time to prepare lessons, some classroom help, a room away from distractions (such as away from extraneous noise) and equipment that would make your job easier. You should also be consulted about any changes to your work, since this can cause huge issues with someone autistic. Remember the expert on any problems you have is you yourself, so think about solutions to any problems you have at work.
Hopefully your head will be more reasonable about things in future.
Access to work are very good and well under used I agree.
I'm not sure about my access to work helper... I'll give them another go, but I don't get a good impression or feeling.