Newly published ACAS guidance tackles the issue of neurodiversity and aims to assist employers to take necessary steps to support neurodivergent staff in the workplace. Neurodiversity is the name given to the different ways in which people’s brains work.
Some people naturally think differently from others. The majority of people are classed as ‘neurotypical’, meaning that their brains function and process information broadly along expected and anticipatable societal lines, but around one in seven (c.15% of people in the UK) process the same information differently. Those in the latter category are classed as ‘neurodivergent’. This includes those with Attention Deficit Disorders, Autism, Dyslexia and Dyspraxia, but it is important that employers appreciate that neurodivergent people may exhibit no obvious signs of being different from anyone else in the workplace.
Most neurodivergence falls along a ‘spectrum’ and each of its forms has a range of associated characteristics that varies between individuals. Neurodivergent individuals can exhibit characteristics of more than one type of divergence, so it is important to avoid pigeonholing people.
The employer’s aim should be to make a workplace more inclusive. Often this will involve building on practices that are already established, but more can always be done. The employer’s commitment to inclusion needs to be clear, reducing stigma and thereby encouraging staff to disclose neurodivergence where it is not obvious. Constant care is required to ensure that neurodivergent staff are treated fairly.
Under the Equality Act 2010 neurodivergence will often qualify as a disability, and clearly this carries many potential risks to the employer who is not doing everything necessary to remove or minimise disadvantages. However, an important point to note is that a person does not need to have been formally diagnosed with a neurodivergence disability to be covered by the Act’s protections.
Neurodivergent people can be creative, innovative, good at lateral and strategic thinking, and highly consistent in tasks once mastered. They bring useful alternative perspectives and can develop specialised skills. The sensible employer will remember the distinct advantages that such individuals can offer to a business and view the necessary steps to equality as an investment in success.
The benefits of a happy and healthy staff throughout an organisation should be obvious, but employers need to be mindful that they may have neurodivergent individuals among their employees who require a great deal of positive encouragement to gain the confidence to talk about it. Organisations that make clear their welcoming attitude to neurodivergence at all times, whether or not they know that they have employees affected, will have a distinct early advantage here.
ACAS’ guidance helps managers to support staff with a wide variety of neurodivergence, including ADHD, Autism, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia and Tourette’s syndrome. Various strategies and policies are explored, accompanied by case studies and video files. The production of the guidance has been assisted by Dr. Nancy Doyle and the Nurodiversity and Employment Working Group of the British Psychological Society, the British Dyslexia Association and the Dyspraxia Foundation.