UPDATES
Celebrating Disability History Month and Able's 2nd Birthday! 🎉
To celebrate Disability History Month and Able's 2nd birthday, we'll be launching our very own Able at NEXT newsletter, sent out every quarter.Â
This will include lots of stories from our Ablers and give you an insight into what we do and how we can support you.Â
To make sure you receive this email, sign up below to exclusively receive our first edition and future editions!Â
Did you know that NEXT is a Disability Confident Employer? We have just renewed our Disability Confident status for another 3 years. This is as a result of the hard work that our staff, network members and volunteers put in to make our brand, and our organisation as inclusive and accessible as we can.Â
Have you ever attended a training session and couldn't remember it the next day? Are there times you would like to go back and wrote down what was actually said? Well now you don't need to. NEXT have designed several bite sized videos to look at a whole range of inclusion topics. From our Diversity Commitment to neurodiversity you will hear from staff who work at NEXT to introduce you to each area. The first one has been launched and can be viewed here.
Discover the latest news and what's happening with Able
Staff Network Day! The beginning of May saw Able partake in Staff Network Day with a difference. We opened Google Meets to the public!! This was an opportunity for anyone who wanted to meet the members, find out about NEXT as a Disability Confident Employer, and connect with us to do just that. It was a great sucessess as always. To find out more about Staff Network Day click here
How exciting! NEXT now has its own staff network which focuses on how we can support disabled people and carers of disabled people in the workplace. This is a network driven by its members, with a focus on education, awareness and safe spaces to talk about disability in all its forms.
Do you want to get involved? Email Able2@next.co.uk to let us know what you want to see on our website. Watch the video to understand the ethos of our network. The more we learn, the closer we get.Â
Happy Birthday Able! On December the 3rd we hit our first birthday but its also International Day for Persons with Disabilities where everyone has the opportunity to put disability in the spotlight and celebrate our staff and consumers who are impacted by disability or caring for someone with a disability. Able are going to let you in to our stories - a snippet into the life of what it is like to work for NEXT with a disaiblity or as a carer. Click here to take a look at our sessions.Â
Our HR Director Lionel Mason had a one on one chat with our Unity Staff Network Group to talk about all things diversity and inclusion. It's a really good listen which looks at the challenges, where we could do and learn, as well as what good work so far has been acomplished through collaboration, and good old fashioned talking!! The video has subtitles so have a look!
The most common question we are asked as a network is what reasonable adjustments are needed for someone with x, y or z condition. What is really important to understand is that reasonable or workplace adjustments which are needed are very individual. Therefore if two people who have dyslexia for example need something which helps them in the workplace, what they need may be very different. We have expanded our guidance on things which may help support with those dicussions, however remember everyone is different. Click here to find out more.Â
New guidance on reasonable adjustments for mental health has been published by ACAS to help support those in work who are struggling. Mental ill conditions can be viewed as a disability as long as it meets the threshold as defined in the Equality Act 2010. To view these click here.Â
April is Parkinson's Awareness Month, and NEXT have continued their partnership by launching another line of clothing. Together we aim to create a better understanding about Parkinson's as well as raise some vital funds to support people who have the condition. To look at the new range click hereÂ
Reasonable adjustments are the source of much debate within the disabled community as well as within organisations. Reasonable adjustments is levelling the playing field, it's not creating favouritism, and it's not about giving someone that competitive edge, it's about levelling the playing field for disabled people.Â
Click here to look at the I.D.L.E approach to getting reasonable adjustments right.Â
Did you know globally that one in seven of us live with a disability, and of those, 80% are classed as having invisible conditions? To put this into context, this means that one billion people are living with a no visible disability.Â
You may be wondering what is an invisible disability, and why the sunflower. The Sunflower Lanyard Scheme is a scheme which has been put in place for people who either have a condition which is not automatically visible or need just that bit of extra support in the workplace.Â
To find out more information about invisible conditions and the sunflower lanyard scheme click here.
This section will provide blogs on different topics of disability which may be of use from different areas of the business.
 If you would like to write a blog then please get in contact able2@next.co.uk