For the third time of offerring can we now have a sensible discussion of the implications to H&S practitioners of disabled and other divesity issues. Let us not have any criticisms of systems designed to make life or work easier for those persons protected under the Equality Act 2010. As H&S practitioners we have a unique, to an extent, understanding of matching risk controls to the needs of people and the problems of preventing abuse of such systems and adaptions and equipment provision. Yes we may wander into non work systems of control as examples of how such things could be translated into the work situation and thence managed. Hopefully the Mods will now act to quickly eliminate those who abuse the thread at this third time of asking. One of my clear concerns has always been that control of abuse of adaptations provided for protected individuals in that individuals exist at all levels of an organisation who do not understand the need to leave adapted areas for say the disabled person free for use when necessary. It thus poses questions about using accessible toilets as also thhe shower facility for the workplace. Further what does an employer do if the affected person disagrees with the facilities or systems provided even though other persons may feel they are adequate? There are many more such issues that need exploration Bob

Hi Bob, Just trying to work out what exactly you want from the topic! Is it an organisations level of compliance with the DDA/Equality Regs or is it sorting out problems with staff et al abusing facilities that are in place for disabled persons?

Bob At the risk of being vilified, many of these issues do not fall exclusively, if at all, on the h&s practitioner but usually HR - God bless 'em. I know you are something of a 'champion' of these causes. H&S practitioners wear many hats, usually anything HR can offload, but as a rule I try to keep a distance from equality and such like matters unless it brought directly for my attention.

Bob, I agree with you - given the resources to. The fact of life here though is that I am already pared down to only doing the legal requirements and the essential. I find the subject of workplace design comes to me sometimes, as do system adjustments and both are interesting to be involved in but I rarely have the opportunity to do it in any great depth. At the moment this all comes under the nice to have banner and I find myself referring them to others. That is true for a lot of matters which I would like to be involved in because I know I could do a better job than those appointed :-)

Oldroyd Do I understand you to be saying that the HSE are wrong to be involved in diversity issues and that the EU sould not have included such matters in work based risk assessments? The previous threads were removed for a number of reasons - enuff said!! Whatever we think H&S functions will need to become more familiar with the whole problem of diversity - it is this governments intention to get more people back into work especially the disabled. Who is going to make the effort to work with them to accomodate the risks they face that the abl do not ecounter or even understand? It is not about the pros and cons of the Equality Act but about how our role will need to develop in future Bob