Nottingham City Council's proactive approach to neurodiversity support

The challenge

Despite limited resources, Nottingham City Council wanted to ensure neurodivergent employees, with conditions ranging from dyslexia to ADHD, could access timely support to help them succeed at work.

“While the council already had wellbeing services in place for issues ranging from mental health to menopause, we recognised a gap in support for neurodivergent employees,” explains Jacqueline Armand, wellbeing manager, Nottingham City Council. “Many employees didn’t know they were neurodivergent until experiencing difficulties at work and were left to navigate the government’s employee-led Access to Work scheme themselves, which could take up to a year.”

She adds: “As a publicly funded organisation, most of our resources have to go towards delivering essential public services, from social care to transport and refuse collection. However, if the ability of one of our 7,000 employees to deliver those services is being compromised, we need to address that in a cost-effective way. That meant looking for a more proactive, employer-led approach.”

“We wanted a more proactive, manager-led approach.”

The approach

To keep costs under control, the council adopted a manager-led approach, training managers to recognise the signs of neurodivergent conditions and refer employees for a workplace needs assessment to identify the support needed to remove barriers to performance.

“To optimise spend, rather than investing in diagnostic assessments or occupational health referrals, we worked with our existing mental health partner, PAM Group, to provide a specialist neurodiversity workplace needs assessment service,” says Jacqueline. “Managers could proactively refer employees for a workplace needs assessment to identify the barriers they were experiencing and receive tailored recommendations for reasonable adjustments. This could range from using existing text-to-speech software for dyslexic employees or support with prioritisation for employees with ADHD.”

The solution

Alongside recommendations for workplace adjustments, employees who needed more specialist support were helped to apply for Access to Work funding in a way that ensured requests aligned with what the council could actually provide.

“In the past employees had successfully applied for and obtained assistive technology through Access to Work themselves, only for us to be unable to adopt it because it didn’t meet our data security or technology requirements. Under the new process, PAM Group helped employees complete their applications to obtain technology the council could support,” says Jacqueline.

“Including the Workplace Needs Assessment in each application also helped speed up the process. In the meantime, managers received a detailed report with recommendations for reasonable adjustments, along with direct access to PAM Group’s specialist team if they needed support to implement anything,” adds Jacqueline.

“Instead of expecting employees to identify their own needs and navigate Access to Work alone, we trained managers to recognise the signs of neurodivergence, have supportive conversations and proactively connect employees with the right support much earlier.”

The result

By redesigning how it supports neurodivergent employees, Nottingham City Council has been able to identify needs earlier, remove barriers before they affect performance and keep support costs under control.

“All 92 employees who have been through the process so far have had a positive experience. It’s enabled us to retain valued employees while providing support that benefits both the individual and the council. The service has become such a valued part of our overall wellbeing offering that we included it in our latest contract retender,” says Jacqueline.

“Overall, PAM Group has helped us take a manager-led approach to neurodiversity, keeping costs under control while ensuring employees get the support they need to perform at their best,” she adds. “By allowing us to jump straight to a workplace needs assessment, we can identify the right adjustments sooner and make the best use of our own resources and Access to Work funding.”

She concludes: “The neurodiversity support has been incredibly well received. Managers now feel more confident recognising neurodivergence, having supportive conversations and making reasonable adjustments. For some employees in their 40s or 50s who didn’t get support at school and struggled throughout their working lives, it’s the first time they’ve been helped to understand their neurodivergence and get the support they need. It’s made us a more inclusive employer.”

“PAM Group has helped us take a manager-led approach to neurodiversity, keeping costs under control while ensuring employees get the support they need so they can perform at their best.”

Jacqueline Armand, Wellbeing Manager, Nottingham City Council