Weldmar recognised as a ‘Disability Confident Employer’

Weldmar Hospicecare has been accredited with ‘Disability Confident Employer’ status.

The charity became ‘Disability Confident Committed’ in November 2019 and has developed in a number of areas to progress to the next level of the government initiative.

Weldmar has an active Equality and Diversity working group with representatives from across the organisation, including nursing, retail, and fundraising. For Weldmar to be recognised as a ‘Disability Confident Employer’, it proves the care we provide for everyone and how everyone is treated fairly. They ensure that:

• We support our employees to manage their disabilities or health conditions.
• We value and listen to feedback from disabled staff.
• All staff have Disability Awareness training at induction and ongoing to identify and share good practice.
• If any disability or health condition is highlighted we will work with the employee and their line manager to make any reasonable adjustments.
• Potential candidates can access recruitment information in different ways.

A recent example of improving recruitment information is including audio described job adverts and job descriptions on our website.

Head of People Services, Lynn Goodchild, says, “It is important to Weldmar that we provide a fully inclusive and accessible recruitment process, and to ensure that our employees have sufficient disability and equality awareness training. Having the Disability Confident badge will show disabled people that we recognise the value they can bring to our business. By using the Disability Confident badge in our job adverts will ensure potential applicants know we are an inclusive employer”.

Other initiatives from the Equality and Diversity Group include making sure that Weldmar services are available to hard to reach communities in Dorset, such as those who are homeless, and travellers.