The NHS Workforce Disability Equality Standard report for 2021, published today – during Equality, Diversity and Human Rights Week – shows the proportion of disabled staff at very senior manager level has increased to 3.4% in 2021, from 2.8% in 2020, and 1.6% in 2019.
Similarly, the proportion of Board members declaring a disability has increased from 2% in 2019 to 3.7% in 2021, matching the makeup of the wider workforce for the first time.
More than 52,000 people in the NHS workforce (3.7%) declared a disability through the NHS Electronic Staff Record, an increase of 6,870 compared to 2020.
It also shows that more than three quarters (76.6%) of disabled staff felt that their employer had made adequate adjustments to enable them to carry out their work, an increase of 2.8 percentage points from 2020, and almost all (97.2%) of trusts now actively facilitate the voices of disabled staff to be heard, up from 85% in 2019.
The metrics include the distribution of disabled staff across the workforce pay bands, short-listing and recruitment, bullying and harassment, and whether adequate adjustments to provide additional support to disabled workers are in place.
The number of disabled staff feeling valued for their contribution has increased over the past 12 months to 39.4%, compared to 50.7% of non-disabled staff.
However, disabled staff report feeling slightly less engaged with their organisation, with an engagement score of 6.68, compared to 7.15 for non-disabled staff.
The report also shows in 2020, 78.4% of disabled staff believed that they had equal opportunities for career progression or promotion, compared with 83.7% of staff overall believing trusts provide equal opportunities for career progression.
The new figures show disabled job applicants are 1.11 times less likely to be appointed from shortlisting compared to non-disabled applicants, a continued improvement from 1.20 in 2020, and 1.18 in 2019.