At Touchstone, we want everyone to be able to thrive as their authentic selves at work! This #NeurodiversityCelebrationWeek, we are keen to share resources on how we can all make our workplaces safer and more inclusive for neurodivergent colleagues.
In 2024, we worked with West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership to create a Neurodiversity in the Workplace toolkit. This toolkit is full of resources to help make NHS workplaces easier and safer to navigate for neurodivergent staff and applicants. It includes guides to reasonable adjustments and Access to Work, tips on taking care of your wellbeing, and videos from the perspective of neurodivergent staff working in the NHS. The toolkit also includes resources for managers wanting to create more inclusive workplaces for neurodivergent staff, such as language and accessibility guides, inclusive recruitment case studies, and much more.
This toolkit is a helpful guide for anyone working in the NHS. Many of the resources can also be useful starting points for any workplace wanting to take steps to become more inclusive.
The guide was coordinated by Touchstone’s Emilie Akselsen, our former Recruitment and Inclusion coordinator and now Equality, Diversity and Inclusion manager for Leeds Mental Wellbeing Service. When reflecting on the toolkit, Emilie says:
Everyone should feel supported and safe to be their true selves at work. For neurodivergent people, it can often be difficult to get the right support at work due to the societal stigma and lack of knowledge around neurodiversity.
Our toolkit takes a two-pronged approach to tackle this. It aims to both empower neurodivergent staff to access the support available to them and equip managers with the tools to confidently implement that support in an informed, person-centred way. To achieve this, we worked with neurodivergent colleagues at all levels of the NHS to truly understand and address the barriers they have faced at work.
Ultimately, we hope the toolkit provides key building blocks for creating more inclusive workplaces in the NHS, and beyond! By ensuring we all feel safe and supported to be our authentic selves, we create workplaces full of creative, ambitious, collaborative working, where we find the very best solutions and ideas.
Explore the full toolkit here: https://workforce.wypartnership.co.uk/programmes/mental-health-learning-disability-autism/supporting-colleagues/neurodiversity-toolkit.
