Guidance

Level 1: Disability Confident Committed

Updated 22 January 2025

Introduction

Disability Confident is creating a movement of change, encouraging employers to think differently about disability and take action to improve how they recruit, retain, and develop disabled people. Being Disability Confident is a unique opportunity to lead the way in your community and show that you are a disability inclusive employer.

The Disability Confident scheme is designed as a continuous learning journey, encouraging employers like you to evolve and improve with every step. It’s not about achieving a static level of the scheme; it’s about embracing a mindset of growth and adaptation. Using the scheme resources, you’ll find yourself better equipped to nurture a workforce where every member feels valued and empowered to contribute their unique talents.

The 3 levels are designed to support you on your Disability Confident journey. The 3 levels are:

• Disability Confident Committed employer (Level 1)

• Disability Confident Employer (Level 2)

• Disability Confident Leader (Level 3)

You must complete each level before moving on to the next.

Membership for a Disability Confident Committed employer lasts for up to 3 years. You are encouraged to progress to the next level (Disability Confident Employer - Level 2) as soon as you are ready which will restart the 3-year membership period. 

More information

Maximus: A practical guide for managers on the most common disabilities and long-term health conditions

Mencap Good for Business  - The benefits of employing people with a learning disability.

Acas: UK workplace experts (video)

Acas: Disability at work

The Recruitment Industry Disability Initiative (RIDI) help recruiters and employers to become disability confident and offer more job opportunities to people with disabilities.

Employing disabled people: Disability Confident and CIPD manager’s guide

Getting Started

So, what are the first steps?

Being Disability Confident is not just a tick list exercise. It should involve your whole business small or large and should have the support of business owners and/or senior leaders. It’s important to take a strategic and organisation-wide approach to becoming Disability Confident. Your senior leaders or business owners should lead on its implementation with involvement from the whole organisation to ensure you develop a disability inclusive culture.

Step one

If you haven’t already done so, download the DC Welcome pack, and share it and this employer pack with those who will be involved in implementing the scheme in your business. 

The welcome pack covers:

• An introduction to the scheme

• Expectations of a Disability Confident Committed (Level 1) member

• Engaging senior leaders’ endorsement to demonstrating they are committed to being a Disability Confident employer

• Identifying a Disability Confident champion for your business

• Promoting your Disability Confident Membership including to current and potential employees, business partners and customers

This employer pack provides you with the:

• Information and guidance you need to start your Disability Confident journey

• Support to build the foundations to become a Disability Confident Employer (Level 2)

Step Two

• Bring together a small group to inform and support progression through the scheme. The size should be proportionate to the size of the business

• Agree your common understanding of why you have joined the scheme and what you want to get out of being a member of the scheme

• Identify the actions you intend to take to increase your understanding of disability to all employees and what it means to your business

Step Three

• Implementing all the Disability Confident Commitments

• Making sure you are offering the activities you have agreed to when signing up

• Contacting Jobcentre Plus to discuss the opportunities you can provide for disabled people

• Regularly reviewing your activities to ensure you are complying with the scheme criteria

• Set a goal to achieve Level 2 of the scheme within your three-year membership

The Disability Confident Commitments

In signing up to be a Disability Confident Committed employer, you have agreed to implement the five commitments below. 

You have also committed to carry out at least one action from a list of nine that will provide an opportunity for disabled people. The number you commit to should be proportionate to the size of your business. 

The five commitments are:

1. Ensure your recruitment process is inclusive and accessible

• Review current recruitment processes and identify improvements which can be made to make them fully inclusive (See More Information below for guidance)

• Use your Disability Confident badge to make sure potential applicants know you are an inclusive employer

• Make job adverts accessible, for example, list only ‘essential’ job requirements, use straightforward language, avoid jargon and acronyms and include an equal opportunities statement, such as ‘We are committed to encouraging equality, diversity and inclusion among our workforce, and eliminating unlawful discrimination’

• Identify and address any barriers that may prevent or deter disabled people from applying for jobs

Provide information in accessible formats including the advert, job description, and all communications between the employer and the candidate. (for example, large print)

More information

Recruitment and disabled people

Inclusive recruitment: Guide for employers CIPD

Accessible communication formats

Asking for information about disability during recruitment

Disability Confident and CIPD: guide for line managers on employing people with a disability or health condition

Access to Work guide for employers

Recruitment and Employment Confederation and Uptimize guide on neurodiversity for recruiters and hiring managers

Recruitment and Employment Confederation and Recruitment Industry Disability Initiative guide to inclusive recruitment practice

2. Communicate and promote vacancies

• Make a commitment to recruit and retain disabled people and ensuring this is reflected in job adverts, for example, by including your Disability Confident badge. Use your Disability Confident badge on vacancy adverts to make sure potential applicants know you are an inclusive employer

• Jobcentre Plus has a range of recruitment services that can help you as an employer. You can contact the Employer Services Line using the online enquiry form or by phone on 0800 169 0178, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm

• Find a job is a free government service on which you can advertise jobs. Add your Disability Confident details to your account and your badge will be added to your adverts

• In Scotland visit Employability in Scotland

• Work with and placing job adverts in the disability press or on disability websites, such as:

  • Disability Jobsite

  • Embracing Future Potential

  • Evenbreak

  • RNIB

  • Vercida

  • Your local disability rights organisation

  • Running, supporting or participating in local disability jobs fairs (check with your local Jobcentre Plus) or targeted recruitment campaigns

More information

Range of communication channels

What is a disabled people’s user-led organisation? (video)

Recruitment and disabled people

Leonard Cheshire – Change100

3. Offer an interview to disabled people

Encourage applications by offering an interview to an applicant who declares they have a disability. Disability Confident scheme members should ensure all applicants are asked as part of the recruitment process if they wish to apply under the Disability Confident scheme.

This does not mean that all disabled people are entitled to an interview. They must meet the minimum criteria for a job as defined by the employer. 

The aim of this commitment is to encourage positive action, encouraging disabled people to apply for jobs and provide an opportunity to demonstrate their skills, talent, and abilities at the interview stage.

An employer can take steps to help or encourage certain groups of people with different needs, or who are disadvantaged in some way, to access work or training. Positive Action is lawful under the Equality Act. 

It is important to note that there may be occasions where it is not practicable or appropriate to interview all disabled people that meet the minimum criteria for the job. For example: in certain recruitment situations such as high number of applications, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. 

In these circumstances the employer could select the disabled candidates who best meet the minimum criteria for the job rather than all of those that meet the minimum criteria, as they would do for non-disabled applicants. This should be explained in the employer’s recruitment policies and job adverts.

• Generally speaking, ‘minimum criteria’ within a job selection process refers to the minimum qualities, skills, experience and or qualifications that a candidate needs to demonstrate to be considered suitable to carry out the role, and progress to the first stage of selection

• Disability Confident employers should make it clear in their recruitment material that if a disabled applicant meets the minimum criteria for the job (as set out in the job-advert or job-specification) they may be given the opportunity to demonstrate their skills, talent and abilities at an interview (the format of which will be decided by the employer for example, face to face, online, telephone)

• If a scoring system is used to establish if an applicant has met the minimum requirements, the employer should ensure that this is clearly set out

• Do not include non-essential requirements which could inadvertently exclude a disabled person

• Apply the commitment to all vacancies, internal and external, wherever possible, indicating clearly in the advert if the offer of an interview applies

• Provide an early opportunity in your application process for disabled people to indicate whether they need any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process

• Ensure that recruiters and hiring managers are aware of your Disability Confident commitment and use this to inform their work

• Within the application form or CV (depending on the employers preferred recruitment process) the applicant must be able to demonstrate that they meet the minimum criteria for the job if they are requesting an interview under the Disability Confident scheme

• Consider whether the minimum criteria could be met by providing reasonable adjustments

• Indicate in the interview and selection information whether feedback is available on request or not

More information

Employing disabled people and people with health conditions

Positive Action in the workplace

4. Anticipate and provide reasonable adjustments as required

Employers have a duty under the Equality Act 2010 to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ in the workplace where a disabled person would otherwise be put at a substantial disadvantage compared with their colleagues.

An employer failing to make reasonable adjustments for a disabled job applicant or employee is one of the most common types of disability discrimination.

What ‘reasonable’ means

What is reasonable depends on each situation. The employer must consider carefully if the adjustment:

• will remove or reduce the disadvantage – the employer should talk with the person and not make assumptions

• is practical to make

• is affordable

• could harm the health and safety of others

Adjustments

Certain aspects or conditions of a job or the workplace can cause a barrier for someone with a disability which can mean they are disadvantaged. Adjustments are changes that are made to the work environment or the way the work is carried out, so that someone with a disability can do their job more effectively and remove or reduce a barrier that someone is experiencing.

They should be considered at every stage of employment, from recruitment and induction to day-to-day work. Adjustments can include, for example:

• finding a different way to do something

• making changes to the workplace

• changing someone’s working arrangements

• providing equipment, services or support

Adjustments are an important factor in helping disabled employees to remain in work. It’s important to remember that:

• Not all adjustments relate to the physical working environment, such as wheelchair ramps - other adjustments can be less tangible but just as important, such as changing work hours or increasing one-to-one supervision

• Not all adjustments cost money or are difficult or time consuming to make

• Adjustments can be made for anyone, and not just employees with a disability or health condition – for example, changing the working hours of someone who has caring responsibilities

More information

EHRC Guidance - employing people, workplace adjustments

Reasonable adjustments are often straightforward (Acas guide)

Access to Work: get support if you have a disability or health condition: What Access to Work is - GOV.UK

Interactive tool: Support with Employee Health and Disability service (GOV.UK)

Millwood Servicing Ltd showcase how they implement and support their employees with reasonable adjustments in the workplace (Acas)

5. Support any existing employee who acquires a disability or long-term health condition, enabling them to stay in work

Have an effective framework in place to retain people with a disability or health condition is important as it can help to save money on recruitment and training and prevents your business from losing valuable skills and talent.

If a member of your team becomes disabled or if their existing condition worsens, be sure to discuss the impact on the work they do, and any adjustments or support that can help them. But be aware that they may still be coming to terms with their disability and how it is affecting their day-to-day life.

Be aware that a person may not want to discuss their disability with you. If this is the case, they may optionally prefer to choose to have a confidential discussion with someone else, for example, a wellbeing champion or HR adviser.

• Don’t make assumptions about an individual’s abilities or requirements, encourage employees to be open and to discuss their access and support needs

• Make sure that employees know that, should they acquire a disability, or should an existing disability or health condition worsen, every effort will be made to enable them to continue in their current job or an alternative one

• Talk to the person about potential reasonable adjustments that will help them to stay in their role – however, if they have only recently acquired their disability, they may not know the barriers they are likely to face at work yet, or how they can be overcome

• Provide support for existing employees who become disabled or experience health problems, for example, through occupational health sessions, offering flexible working patterns, offering home working. This includes supporting applications to Access to Work for advice and financial support

• Keep a written record of any agreed adjustments and keep them under regular review to see how well they are working

More information

Disability Confident and CIPD: guide for line managers on employing people with a disability or health condition 

CIPD and MIND Supporting mental health at work

Access to Work Guide for employers

Mind Workplace Wellbeing

Mental health support toolkit (bitc.org.uk)

Musculoskeletal Health Toolkit for Employers (bitc.org.uk)

EY talk about their approach to recruiting talented disabled people and how they support staff who acquired a disability during their career. (video)

Activities you have offered to provide employment related opportunities for disabled people

To become Disability Confident Committed, you have agreed to offer disabled people at least one of the following activities. Explore the links below to find more information about each activity. Please review the activities you have agreed to on a regular frequency.

1. Work experience

This is usually a fixed period that a person spends with your business when they can learn about working life and the working environment.

More information

Work experience: employer guide - GOV.UK 

Work experience - Pay and hours for young workers and apprentices - Acas

2. Work trial

This is usually a fixed period that a person spends with your business when they can learn about working life and the working environment. If this is agreed with Jobcentre Plus, an employer can offer a work trial if the job it may lead to is for 16 hours or more a week and lasts for at least 13 weeks. The work trial should:

• End when you’re sure about whether the jobseeker is suitable for the role

• Last no more than 5 days if the job is for less than 6 months

• Last no more than 30 days (and usually around 5 days) for jobs lasting 6 months or more

More information

Jobcentre Plus help for recruiters: work trials

3. Paid employment (permanent or temporary)

Jobcentre Plus offers a range of recruitment services that can help you as an employer.

More information

Jobcentre Plus help for recruiters

Recruiting disabled people

4. Apprenticeships

These are for new and current employees. They combine working with studying for a work-based qualification. If your business is based in England, you may get a grant or funding for apprenticeship training.

More information

Apprenticeships

Employ an apprentice in:

• England

• Scotland

• Wales 

• Northern Ireland

5. Job shadowing opportunities

These positions:

• Offer potential employees experience of a workplace and occupational skills that are different from what they are used to

• Are limited to observation only, are non-paid and do not give direct work experience, responsibility or skills

• Ideally last between half a day and 2 days

More information

What is job shadowing?

6. Traineeships (England only)

These help young people who want to get an apprenticeship or job but do not yet have the right skills or experience.

More information

Traineeships

7. Paid and Supported Internships

This is a period of paid work experience lasting between 1 and 4 months, usually taking place during the summer. A supported internship is aimed at disabled people still in education who are seeking work experience.

More information

Providing quality internships: guidance for employers

Leonard Cheshire Change 100

Supported internships

8. Student placements

These are university or college qualifications. They are usually for a set period, between 4 to 6 months.

More information 

Prospects: Student placements

9. Sector-based work academy programme (England and Scotland)

These help you fill vacancies more effectively. They are available through Jobcentre Plus. They provide sector-based training, work experience and a guaranteed job interview.

More information

Sector-based work academies: employer guide

Next steps: Progressing on your Disability Confident Journey

To progress on your Disability Confident journey, we have provided some initial steps to help you to comply with your scheme commitments and progress to the next level of the scheme:

• Consider implementing systems to review and collect data on your organisation’s workplace adjustments procedure, and make sure employees can give feedback on it to inform continue improvements to the support that it offers

• Make sure your employees know you are a Disability Confident member by displaying your Disability Confident certificate and logo

• Encourage open employee discussions so that disabled people feel empowered to ask for support from you to put in place timely workplace adjustments

• Ensure that the business induction process explains your Disability Confident membership and what that means for disabled employees and those with long-term health conditions

• Engage with your local Jobcentre Plus to support any recruitment activities

• Identify a Disability Confident champion for your business. Champions have an important role in supporting disability inclusion. Disability Champions can signpost colleagues to support and information, raise awareness and identify and share good practice throughout the organisation – helping you build a reputation as an inclusive employer

• Ensure senior leaders are committed to Disability Confident. Senior leaders can challenge traditional practices such as presenteeism and a long-hours culture by demonstrating healthier working practices themselves. In doing so, they can build an environment of trust and mutual support that strengthens teams and encourages everyone to take responsibility for making the business disability positive

• Review the activities you agreed to when you signed up to the scheme and document what you have done to achieve these, before your renewal date

• Start to gather and collate information from level 1 on actions and improvements to support you on your organisation’s Disability Confident journey. Having a continuous improvement plan in place will set you up for progressing to be a Disability Confident Employer (Level 2), there’s no need to wait until your renewal date

You will receive regular emails to prompt you to continue your Disability Confident journey at 6,12,18 and 24 months into your membership period.

Annex 1: Checking or updating your Disability Confident details

It is important to keep your details up to date and tell us if any of your details change or you discover they are incorrect. 

You can review and update your account information (including providing additional contacts) and review your disability confident commitments. 

You should tell us about changes to your:

• Named contact

• Email address

• Telephone number

• Business name

• Business address and postcode

Also tell us if your business has ceased trading.

When to let us know about a change

You should make any changes to your details as soon as you can.

Who can make the change

Changes can only be made by the primary or alternative business contact who is registered with the scheme. If you don’t know who that was or they have left the business, then you will need to follow the instructions below under other ways to change your details.

How to make a change

To make a change you will need your Disability Confident reference number, which is on your certificate, it starts with DCS, followed by six digits. 

• Use the update your Disability Confident details form to check or make changes to your membership

• After entering your Disability Confident number an email will be sent to your primary and alternative contact email addresses

• Click on update your Disability Confident details. This link will expire in one hour

• You can then check the details we hold for your business

• You can then use the change links to update your details

• Click confirm details to submit your changes

• We will review your changes and contact you if we have any questions. You will receive an email confirmation once your changes have been accepted. This may take up to 10 working days

Other ways to change your details

If you are not able to use the form, do not know your Disability Confident reference number or need to tell us your business is merging or ceasing trading, you can report these changes by emailing disabilityconfident.scheme@dwp.gov.uk.

Include details of what has changed. For example, your new telephone number or email address.

To help us trace your records, include in the email your:

• Disability Confident reference number, if you know it (this begins with DCS0)

• Business name

• Postcode