3rd December 2023
Belfast Health and Social Care Trust have been awarded AAA* Disability Positive Accreditation by Employers Forum for Disability NI
This accreditation, the only local accreditation of its kind in Northern Ireland, recognises Belfast Trust as an employer that actively promotes equality, diversity and inclusion.
The Trust has demonstrated that we have implemented our Disability Equality Policy into measurable practice and this is reflected in the employment of disabled people at all levels throughout our organisation. The award represents that 90-100% of disability good practice actions were implemented in our workplace. To qualify, we completed a Disability Positive Audit that focused on employment-related disability good practice.
The three As, audit, action and accreditation; highlight the steps we have taken as an employer to support disabled applicants, existing disabled staff and to work in partnership with a range of stakeholders including disability organisations, Occupational Health and our Trade Union colleagues to improve outcomes for our staff. We will continue to co-develop and implement Disability Positive practice and identify where progress is required in order to enhance standards.
Speaking about the accreditation, Gabrielle Fitzpatrick, Director of Operations at Employer for Disability NI commended Belfast Trust for their achievement. She said: “Congratulations to Belfast Health and Social Care Trust on a fantastic achievement. The work the Trust has done to recruit and support disabled employees is outstanding and it is an exemplar for other employers. There is no doubt the Trust thoroughly deserves to be accredited as a Disability Positive Employer awarded at the highest level, AAA* status.”
As a Health and Social Care employer, Belfast Trust is proud to have attained accreditation and recognition for our Human Resources teams and service managers across the Trust that are working to a high standard and are among the best Disability Positive employers in NI.
Currently 2% of our workforce have declared that they have a disability. This figure may not reflect actual numbers as often staff fail to update their employment equality data and or they do not consider their health condition to be a disability.