Edition 2: Demystifying the Access to Work grant

One of the most common questions I get asked by people is "I want to support the neurodivergent people I manage, where should I start?"

There are many places you could start but there is one source of support in particular that has been incredibly beneficial to me personally and many others but so many people don't know about it and it's too good to not utilise!

It's the Access to Work government grant which is a support programme designed to help disabled people and people with mental illness to start working, stay in work or even move into self-employment or start a business (except business startup costs).

It covers things like equipment, coaching, training and more. In this article I'll demystify the ATW grant and process. Employees should be aware of it as it's you that has to apply, and employers should be aware of the whole process and also know to direct employees with disabilities or mental health conditions to it.

Key Facts:

• You do not need a medical diagnosis to apply
• The max grant for April '23 to March '24 is ￡66,000
• ATW will cover the majority of the costs. The amount will depend on how long the employee has been employed for at time of applying for ATW and the total number of employees
• The grant is for 1 year, and you can renew or extend it
• ATW will NOT cover the cost of reasonable adjustments, this is the legal duty of the employer

How much does the employer pay?

If the person applying has been employed for 6 weeks or less at the time of applying, ATW will usually cover 100% of the grant.

If they've been employed for >6 weeks, you may have to share some of the costs with ATW as shown below:

As an employer you will pay 100% up to the threshold. For anything between the threshold and ￡10,000 you pay 20% of that and ATW will pay 80%. Anything over ￡10,000 will usually be covered by ATW.

My experience with ATW

I applied in May 2022 and I had my assessment at the end of October 5 months later. My assessor was really nice and very inclusive but I have heard they can be a bit hit and miss. Some of the things I received:

• Text-to-speech software
• Disability awareness training
• Noise-cancelling headphones
• 20 hours of 1-1 coaching
• 8 hours of co-coaching (coaching with me and my manager so they can understand me better to support me)

The last two were probably the most beneficial to me as I had an AMAZING coach, Eilidh Stewart-Barritt. She's changed my life in more ways than one and as she is also ADHD she just "gets it"!

My only learning point was that I went into the assessment unprepared. The things I got were apparently very generic ATW things. If you prepare and come to them with what you think you need they will usually listen so don't make the same mistake I did!

The application process

*All of the below relates to the employee requesting the grant*

1. The employee will apply online here : . Takes roughly 5-10 mins to fill in.
2. You will need to add information such as : your condition, how it impacts you day-to-day, a contact at your company (it will likely be your line manager or HR, ask them first before you put someone down as each company will have their own preference)
3. You'll get an acknowledgement email with an estimated timescale for your application to be processed. Mine was Around 5 months but I applied in May 2022 so it may be longer now!

What happens next:

1. The employee will receive an email asking to schedule an assessment with a needs assessor. Mine was booked in for 1.5 hours but it may vary. As I'm a remote worker it was conducted virtually but I needed a measuring tape on hand to give them measurements for my monitor, desk etc. If you're in office they will need to arrange to come into the office.
2. The assessment will involve asking a range of questions like what your job is, what your responsibilities are, where your barriers are etc, what your working hours/patterns are etc
3. The assessor will write a report. The employer will get sent an award list outlining what they have recommended. The employee gets posted the full report, this contains personal information about your condition and you do not need to show this to the employer
4. The employer pays for the support and claims it back from Access to Work. Note there should not be unreasonable delays in providing the support to the employee, this has been looked at unfavourably in some tribunal cases

In Summary

ATW is too good not to make the most of, you'd be surprised!

As the backlog is fairly big and the application process doesn't take long, it is definitely worth applying right away so you will move up the list! (ADHDers I'm talking to you, this is one thing you should not procrastinate I promise the application form is not as long and scary as you think!!)

Thanks for reading and stay fabulous!

Parul x

Further reading and resources:

• Access to work factsheet for employers
• Access to work factsheet for employees
• Diversity and Ability - Access to Work guide
• ADHD UK ATW guide