Cardiff University comprises over 25 different schools. Responsibilities are devolved to the heads of schools. The HEI recognised that this could result in very inconsistent experiences for disabled staff.
Therefore each school now has:
- a named HR contact, from a central HR team, trained in responding to impairment declarations
- a disability contact for each school
Although these roles were created primarily to meet the requirements of students, their existence has implications for disabled staff. Disability contacts are required to attend disability equality training. They also sit on the equality and diversity contacts group and receive training on university policies – including those specifically relating to disabled staff.
In addition, the pro vice-chancellor for staff and diversity speaks regularly to the heads of schools meeting on equality and diversity responsibilities, including disability. All leadership and management training now has work on equality and diversity built in, and mandatory training has been introduced for all those with management responsibilities.