4. Taking action: how can the sector support disabled leaders?
Reflecting on what disabled and non-disabled leaders and other staff told us during this research, we recognised that organisations are at very different starting points in their journey to become an inclusive organisation. Alongside individual organisational action, we also think there are actions the sector could start to take collectively, to help break down the stigma, prejudice and poor practice which stops stop organisations being able to make the best use of talented disabled leaders.
It’s worse for CEO roles to disclose disability…you don’t want to be tokenised as the disabled leader.
There is no culture of take-up of CPD in disabled people’s organisations and until you try you don’t know the value of it.
With this in mind, we have produced a series of actions individual organisations can take, which over time can add up to sector-wide change. We know that this change won’t happen overnight, and that some organisations will have to get some essential building blocks in place first. We are mindful of the resources necessary to achieve this change too. Many of them will take significant investments of time and money. Creating a sector that values, supports and develops disabled leaders is long- term work, which will need to address and overcome decades of entrenched ableism, and the actions reflect this. However, many of the actions are not resource-intensive, and a more inclusive sector will bring considerable benefits to the workforce as a whole.
The actions begin with building the basics, including understanding what the disabled workforce looks like. They then look at actions and needs for the wider sector, and for future disabled leaders. We have split actions into three progressive changes, to help organisations think about building an inclusive organisation as a journey. These stages are:
- Inclusive foundations
- Building good practice
- Leading the way
The tables below cover seven areas of an organisation, and can be used as a light-touch audit tool to assess what stage the organisation is at, and what more it might need to do.
The number of actions we have suggested reflect the early stage we believe the majority of the sector is at. Some organisations will not be ready to take all of the actions below, but can build up to them once they have the basics for supporting disabled leaders in place. Some organisations, particularly those with low numbers of employees, may also find that it is impractical or inappropriate to engage in some of the monitoring processes described below. These actions provide a guide, rather than a prescription; there are actions all organisations can take to play their part in improving the sector as a whole. What is important is that action is taken in order to create real change.
As a leader I need to look outside my organisation [to get support on disability inclusion]. I need a safe space to explore and understand disability and what it means to be inclusive.
