We are an accredited Disability Confident Leader!
'Disability Confident' is a Government run scheme that encourages employers to recruit and retain people with disabilities and health conditions. This scheme aims to create a movement of change, encouraging employers to think differently about disability and take action to improve how they recruit, retain and develop all their employees.
We underwent two stages of assessment. Dr Kathy Hoffman, the GP Lead on diabetes for Bucks and Chair of Diabetes UK for Aylesbury Vale, undertook the first half of this assessment. She was highly complementary about our approach to recruiting and retaining people with disabilities; she added, "It is so refreshing to see an organisation that embraces employees with a disability, recognising their value.”
The second part of the assessment was carried out by the team at Talkback, a local autism and learning disability charity. They commented: "The passion and support the organisation has displayed for helping people with disabilities is inspiring."
There are over 17,000 UK businesses that have registered with the Disability Confident scheme, and only 2.79% of these businesses have achieved this top-ranking level. Excluding us, only two other businesses in Buckinghamshire have achieved Level 3 and seven Housing Associations nationally. 
John Wallbank, Head of People Engagement at Fairhive, added “I am so proud of our Disability Confident Leader accreditation; this has been such a team effort for Fairhive to recognise our excellent practices in recruiting and retaining people with disabilities.
I would like to thank our Disability Confident Leader assessors for their support, inspiration and guidance; Dr Kathy Hoffman MBBS, MRCGP, HonMRCP and Ian Rowlands/Chris Taylor from Talkback UK . I would also like to thank my colleagues at the Department of Work and Pensions for their longstanding support and encouragement to us in achieving Disability Confident Leader, in particular both Ben Stykuc and Harry Tomlinson.
I’m grateful for the support of our Fairhive colleagues, especially in our HR and Communications teams, for their hard work in achieving this.
I am very open about living life with Type 1 diabetes and I’m so proud that we have psychological safety in Fairhive. Our colleagues have also shared their inspirational stories about living life with various disabilities, raising awareness for all of us.
However, there is so much to do. In the UK we have a disability employment gap of 29% and the employment rate for people with a disability is 53%, compared to 82% for people without a disability. People with a disability are almost twice as likely to be unemployed and three times as likely to be economically inactive as people without a disability.
Our achievement is just the start of our journey and I look forward to continuing to make a difference at Fairhive, within our industry and beyond.”
Our role as a Disability Confident Leader now involves encouraging other employers to make the journey to become Disability Confident. We are already an active member of the Disability Confident Forum in Bucks and we look forward to working in partnership with our external stakeholders, such as the Department of Work and Pensions, to achieve this.