Reasonable adjustments for ADHD: examples that work

The duty, in plain words

Section 20 of the Equality Act 2010 puts a duty on employers to make reasonable adjustments for disabled workers and job applicants. It has three parts. Where a provision, criterion or practice (how work is done), a physical feature of the workplace or the lack of an auxiliary aid (a tool or service) puts a disabled person at a substantial disadvantage compared with people who aren't disabled, the employer has to take reasonable steps to remove the disadvantage.

ADHD can meet the Act's definition of disability: a physical or mental impairment with a substantial and long-term adverse effect on the ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. Whether it does in a given case depends on the person, not the label. The duty arises when the employer knows, or could reasonably be expected to know, that the person is disabled and likely to be disadvantaged. The Act doesn't require a formal diagnosis, though evidence helps if the point is ever disputed.

What makes an adjustment "reasonable" is set out in the Equality and Human Rights Commission's Employment Code. In short: would it work, is it practical, what does it cost against the employer's size and resources, is outside funding such as Access to Work available, and how disruptive is it. The employer can't pass the cost of an adjustment to the employee.

Examples, by the difficulty they address

ADHD shows up at work as a small number of recurring difficulties. Adjustments work best when they're matched to the difficulty rather than picked from a generic list. Costs below are typical; most are nil.

Holding information in mind

Starting, prioritising and finishing

Focus and the environment

Time

Performance and process

What it costs, and who pays

Most adjustments on the lists above cost nothing beyond a manager's attention. The ones that cost money fall into two groups.

• Small purchases the employer makes directly. Headphones, a monitor, a software licence under £100 a year. Faster to buy than to claim, and unarguably reasonable for any employer with a budget.
• Larger items Access to Work funds. Coaching, specialist software bundles, support workers. The person applies; a workplace needs assessment recommends the support; DWP pays or reimburses. Employers with 50 or more staff share equipment costs unless the person applied within six weeks of starting. Our guide on whether Access to Work funds software has the thresholds.

The availability of Access to Work is itself a factor in what's reasonable. An employer who could have had an adjustment funded and refused it on cost grounds is on weak ground.

Recording the agreement

Adjustments that aren't written down don't survive a change of manager. The simplest fix is a tailored adjustments plan, sometimes called a workplace adjustments passport: a one-page record, owned by the employee, of what's been agreed, why and when it's reviewed. It moves with them between roles and managers.

A workable plan has five lines per adjustment:

1. The difficulty it addresses, in the employee's words
2. The adjustment agreed
3. Who provides it and by when
4. How it's funded, if it costs anything
5. When it's reviewed, typically at three months and then annually

Review is the part that gets skipped. ADHD isn't static, jobs change and an adjustment that worked in March can be irrelevant by September. A ten-minute review at each check-in keeps the plan honest.

Refusing an adjustment

An employer can decline an adjustment that isn't reasonable in the circumstances. Do it in writing, with the reason, and offer an alternative that addresses the same difficulty. A refusal with reasons and an alternative is defensible; a silence isn't. If the request came with a workplace needs assessment report, the report is the starting point for the conversation, not the end of it.

Disclosure and confidentiality

The duty arises when the employer knows, or could reasonably be expected to know, about the disability. That puts two things on the adjustments lead.

What the person tells you is theirs to control. The fact that an employee has ADHD is health information and can be shared only with their agreement and only as far as needed to make the adjustment work. A line manager needs to know which adjustments to make; they don't necessarily need to know why. Ask the person what they want said, to whom, and record the answer in the adjustments plan.

"Could reasonably be expected to know" is broader than a formal disclosure. If someone has mentioned ADHD in passing, asked for adjustments without naming a condition, or shown a pattern that a reasonable employer would follow up, the duty may already be live. The safe response to any request for a change in how work is done is to treat it as a possible adjustment request and ask what would help, not to wait for a diagnosis letter.

Two situations come up often:

• The employee hasn't told their manager. HR can agree adjustments and frame them to the manager as working practices for the whole team, such as written actions after meetings. Many good ADHD adjustments help everyone, which makes them easy to introduce without singling anyone out.
• The employee is waiting for an assessment. Agree adjustments now on the basis of the reported difficulties. Nothing in the Act requires waiting, the waiting lists are long and the adjustments are the same either way.

Where Humble fits

Humble is organising software for ADHD and autistic working patterns: one place for tasks, notes, meetings and the people they relate to, so written follow-ups, broken-down tasks and deadlines live where the person will look. It's the auxiliary aid that makes several of the nil-cost adjustments above stick, because the written action from a meeting has somewhere to go.

It costs £8 a month or £72 a year per person, invoiced to the employer or the employee with VAT shown separately, and can be funded by Access to Work or bought outright as an adjustment. The employers page covers both routes; set-up is one session with the employee.