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As a Disability Committee we have often wondered how much good work related to disability is going on in libraries of all sectors that we don’t know about.
INSIGHT
Disability Network
Sharing examples of good practice A
We wish everyone a very happy new year from the CILIP Disability Network.
S a great start to the year, we are delighted to introduce our new Network Secretary, Helen Alper, who is the
Associate Director of Knowledge Services at Barts Health NHS Trust. Helen brings a wealth of experience, enthusiasm and expertise to the Disability Network and we are so pleased to have her on board. Helen describes the work Barts is doing to support disability and inclusion, saying: “At Barts, several of the library team are involved in aspects of the Trust’s equality and diversity agenda which is called ‘WeBelong’. One member of the team creates the monthly ‘Equality and Inclusion Update’, which is circulated to our readers and members of the Trust’s networks. There are six staff -led networks at Barts: BartsAbility; Women’s; LGBTQ+ staff ; BAME; Carers; Interfaith and Beliefs. “Library staff at Barts are members of the various networks and in some cases are on the management committees for the networks. Johanna Van Ochten is co-chair of the Women’s Network and Catherine O’Connell is part of the Interfaith steering group. They support the agenda by being signposters for wellbeing, diversity and inclusion, as well as being involved in wellbeing and inclusion boards; the culture and engagement group and the Wellbeing stakeholders group”
Barts uses its “BartsAbility Passport” to support an employee with a health condition, disability or learning diff erence. The Passport is for any employee who identifi es themselves as having a disability or long-term condition that impacts how they undertake their role or job. Individuals may identify themselves during recruitment, or after a period of time in the job, or their health status may change during their employment. I recently spoke to Caroline Collinge,
January-February 2023
a Library Assistant based in The Curve Library at Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (GMMH), who is Co-Chair of their trust Disability Network Group. Caroline is hearing impaired and has been involved in reviewing and updating the GMMH Disability Passport (DP) and Wellbeing Policy (WP).
Caroline explained: “Our Disability Network Group (DNG) is well-established within the trust and were asked by the Associate Director of HR to form a working group, to review and update the existing trust Disability Passport, to make it as accessible as possible. “We started by reviewing the colours, text and font used throughout the document, to ensure it met the needs of staff who are neurodiverse. We then asked members of the group who have a disability or additional needs, such as ASD and Autism to write help sheets for managers to use when completing a DP and included links to additional resources and websites. The updated DP and supporting information were agreed with HR, and are now available via the trust intranet.” Following on from the DP review, the DNG were involved in the review of the trust sickness policy, which is now a Wellbeing Policy, and is more of a conversational document, that is designed to work with supervision documents and the revised DP, to ensure staff are supported in discussing and raising health concerns and disability issues. A new training module in completing the DP and Wellbeing Policy has now been rolled out to managers via the trust Learning and development hub.
The CQC also has recently recognised the work of the trust DNG, saying it was an example of best practice within the trust.
● GMMH Disability Passport (DP); ● Autism and the Disability Passport (help
Morag Clarkson and Catherine McLaren are Co-Chairs of the CILIP Disability Network.
sheet for managers completing the DP);
● GMMH Wellbeing Policy Consultation Document.
As a Disability Committee we have often wondered how much good work related to disability is going on in libraries of all sectors that we don’t know about. So, it’s over to you for some help. We would love to hear from you if staff in your library are part of the equality, diversity and inclusion agenda particularly related to disability.
This will help to give us a snapshot of activity, across sectors.
We would be delighted to give some space in this column to highlight work you are doing to support library staff or end users. Just drop us an email to tell us about it. We are always delighted to hear from you via
info.disability@cilip.org.uk. IP
INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL 17
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