SIX TOWN HOUSING, REASONABLE ADJUSTMENTS POLICY
Author: Alison Leach, BICF Business Manager
Date Approved |
December 2020 |
Review Date |
December 2022 |
PURPOSE
Six Town Housing are committed to ensuring that disabled people are not disadvantaged in accessing our services.This policy is intended to provide guidance on meeting individual needs covered by the Equality Act (2010) through offering appropriate adjustments.It is also to ensure we continue to deliver high standards in customer service, meet customers’ needs and align these standards with those set out in our Equality and Diversity and Inclusion Framework.
This policy does not explain how we will approach every situation; it will do the following:-
SCOPE / LEGAL REQUIREMENTS
As a provider of services to the public, Six Town Housing has a legal duty to ensure that customers are not prevented from using our services because they have a disability.
Under the Equality Act 2010, the duty to make reasonable adjustments falls into three areas:
Substantial disadvantage is defined in the Equality Act 2010 s.212(1) as ‘more than minor or trivial’
WHAT IS A REASONABLE ADJUSTMENT?
A Reasonable Adjustment is a legal term described in the Equality Act (2010).It means that Six Town Housing have a duty to make reasonable adjustments where it’s working practices (including policies and procedures) or physical premises put a disabled customer at a substantial disadvantage in comparison with customers who are not disabled.
It is not possible to produce an exhaustive list of reasonable adjustments since an adjustment can only be determined as reasonable or not in relation to a specific set of circumstances.
However, the Equality Act’s Code of Practice suggests that, when deciding whether an adjustment is reasonable, the following issues should be considered:
ADJUSTMENTS THAT WILL BE CONSIDERED
Six Town Housing is committed to maintaining a high standard of accessibility to our services for all customers we come into contact with.We should therefore ensure our approach embraces all customers who have a mental or physical impairment as defined by the act as follows:
“If he or she has a physical or mental impairment and the impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities (S6(1))”
The following examples would be covered by this definition (this list is not exhaustive);
In some instances we may provide reasonable adjustments in circumstances which are not defined as a disability according to the Equality Act, but will make services accessible to customers with special need or circumstance.
Whilst it is not possible to list all such circumstances, below is a list of some examples:
GUIDANCE
As a general rule, Six Town Housing staff should follow the following approach;
Be flexible. Customers in similar sets of circumstances may have different ways of dealing with them – just because people have a similar disability, it does not mean that they will require the same support.
APPEAL
If a customer is unhappy with any decision made by Six Town Housing in relation to reasonable adjustments – they are able to appeal by visiting the ‘Complaints and Compliments’ section on our website – which gives more detail.
REVIEW
This policy will be reviewed every 2 years unless there are changes to legislation, regulation, best practice or a business need.