L&Q becomes Disability Confident

L&Q has become a Disability Confident Employer after completing level 2 of the Government’s Disability Confident scheme.

Disability Confident supports employers in fully harnessing the talents, skills and expertise that people with disabilities bring to the workplace.

L&Q has been recognised as Disability Confident Committed since earlier in the year. Through this additional accreditation, we have renewed our commitment to employing, supporting, and promoting disabled people to further widen our talent pool.

Ability, our staff network for Disability and long-term health conditions, will form an action plan from our level 2 accreditation to ensure best practice within L&Q, as well as help us to work towards becoming a level 3 Disability Confident Leader.

Fiona Fletcher-Smith, CEO at L&Q said:

“At L&Q, we champion Disability Confident and continuously challenge ourselves to make every effort to be an inclusive employer.

Working with HR and our Diversity and Inclusion team, Ability’s direction has been instrumental to the progress made so far and will continue to drive our efforts moving forward.

We still have work to do, and always will, but we firmly believe that listening and learning are at the heart of improving.”

As a Disability Committed Employer, we:

• Have undertaken and completed the Disability Confident self-assessment
• Are taking all the core actions to be a Disability Confident Employer
• Are offering at least one activity to get the right people for our business and at least one activity to keep and develop our people
• Are using the logo to make it clear to everyone that we welcome disabled applicants and recognise the value they bring. It also shows existing employees that we are committed to supporting them if they become disabled or develop a health condition

Benefits include:

• Increasing our understanding of disability and how to make the most of opportunities provided by employing disabled people
• Removing barriers that might be preventing disabled people and those with long-term health conditions from accessing employment with us
• Being able to play our part in ensuring disabled people have opportunities to fulfil their potential and realise their aspirations

Felix Lynn, Chair of L&Q’s staff disability network, Ability, said:

“We are delighted that L&Q is leading the way on disability inclusion for housing associations.

The benefits of employing disabled people have an enormous impact on all aspects of social housing, including creating a workforce that reflects the diverse make-up of our residents.

The next step will be upgrading our Disability Confident status to the level of ‘leader’ – a goal we are absolutely committed to.”