Name: Women and Equalities Committee
Uploaded: 2026-11-11T14:30:34+00:00
Duration: 4689 s

00:02 - 00:38

Speaker 3

Welcome to the Women and Equalities Select Committee. Today, we are holding a session for our inquiry on flexible working and disability, which forms part of the Committee's series of inquiries looking at equality at work, and we're very grateful to you all for joining us this afternoon. I should flag at the outset that we're expecting votes at 4 o'clock, so we're going to try, if we can, to try and conclude questions before then, so that we're not interrupted, because it's two votes, and it will be a lengthy interruption to our discussion. I'm really pleased today to be joined by Julie Dennis, Head of Inclusive Workplace Strategy and Policy at Acas. Welcome, Julie.

00:38 - 01:04

Speaker 4

John Kirkpatrick, Chief Executive Officer at the Equality and Human Rights Commission, thank you for joining us. Claire McCartney, Senior Policy Adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, the CIPD, and Ruth Wilkinson, Head of Policy and Public Affairs at the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health. Thank you so much to all of you for coming this afternoon. We're really looking forward to hearing from you, and I'm going to start off by handing over to Christine.

01:04 - 01:27

Speaker 1

Good afternoon. My name's Christine Jardine. I'm an MP from Edinburgh, and I wonder if we could start off talking about the equality impacts of return-to-work mandates, and if I could ask Claire and then Ruth, first of all, what steps you believe employers should take to ensure that disabled workers' needs are properly considered when changing home and hybrid working policies?

01:27 - 03:29

Speaker 2

Thank you. I think really good question. Firstly, I suppose I'd say there's no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to employer approaches to home and hybrid working, so they're going to need to vary depending on the organisation or sector, industry, the employee needs and how that supports performance, productivity and, of course, employee participation. I think when thinking about changes to home and hybrid working policies, employers need to ensure that disabled workers' needs are properly and thoroughly considered, so this includes ensuring that they meet their legal obligations, such as those under the Equality Act 2010; actively consulting disabled staff to prevent disadvantage; ensuring that line managers have open, individual conversations with disabled employees about their preferred working patterns; also I think not making assumptions, but recognising that, for some, remote or hybrid working can be an important reasonable adjustment to help manage conditions, energy levels, pain, commuting barriers; assessing on-site versus remote barriers, as well, so reviewing the physical office environment, addressing any common challenges for disabled workers, such as sensory overload, noise, lack of rest spaces, inaccessible building locations, facilities, and any commuting challenges there; providing accessible equipment and technology, so ensuring remote and hybrid set-ups are properly resourced, including software, ergonomic desks, chairs, inclusive communication methods; and then I'd also say continuing to review, adapt and improve approaches to make sure that they remain effective and responsive to changing needs, and I think that certainly includes conducting regular equality impact assessments and reviewing whether policy changes inadvertently disadvantage, isolate or limit disabled employees' career progression.

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