Access to Work workplace assessment

dori2o

garfield413 wrote: »

Access to work is run by the JobCentre and is instigated by the individual. Once they complete an assessment, the amount the employer and/or ATW pay towards any equipment is dependent on the number of employees your employer has. I noticed you mentioned working for the Government - hopefully then your employer will have already told you about fully paid disability leave (rather than you using sick leave, etc) while you wait for your reasonable adjustment to be put in place then!

Yep, I'm currently on Disability Adjustment Leave.

They have ordered the chair which I believe is unsuitable and I have to go back when this arrives. I have to give the chair a 'reasonable' trial and then if its unsuitable apply for further disability adjustment leave until a suitable chair is found.

dori2o

Does anyone know what the timescales are for the call back from Access to Work following the initial call?

I had thought it would be today but as yet I've heard nothing.

Scully38

dori2o wrote: »

Has anyone had a workplace assessment by Access to Work for things like chairs, footstools.

My employers OH advisors have recommended a chair from the employers supplier which is unsuitable, I know this as I've had the same chair before, but my employer is refusing to look at alternatives and says I must accept the OHA's advice despite the fact the chair is too big, doesn't have any lumbar/upper back support, and the seat is so large it digs into the back of my knee and I wouldn't be able to use my specialist leg rest.

I'm considering asking my employer to accept a workplace assessment from Access to Work in order to resolve the issue.

Any advice appreciated.

I work for the NHS, but I use Access to Work for my chair, foot rest, PC needs etc and have never had any problems with Occupational Health. I also worked for the government for 16 years before joing the NHS and used Access to work for my needs as I have a disability. They've never interfered or intervened at all, as i've explained to them that I have the right to ask Access to Work to assess me. OH are great for some things, but Access to Work are specifically designed to deal with disability issues whereas Occy Health are generally there as a middleman for your employers and to a degree you.

It might be worth you having a word with Access to Work and see what they say. It may be that your employers are worried about costs. You can explain to them that they may not need to pay full costs or any costs (depending on when you started), and this might make them a bit more reasonable to deal with.

If the chair occupational health is offering is not suitable for your needs, then you don't need to accept it. The good thing about Access to Work is that they are specifically trained to deal with you and no one else, they don't have to liaise with your employers they're there for you. Normally you start with a telephone consultation and application, they then come to your work, assess your needs depending on what you require to help you in work, they then take your measurements (and they're very specific measuring from your head to you feet). Once they have got your measurements, they'll go through the catalogue with you to see what is/isn't suitable. When the assessment is finished they go off to write their report and will send you an email/letter which details the costs of everything and the maximum they will pay, then you'll need to let your accountant(s) know or HR, whomever is responsible for purchasing/invoice etc. Then you email/ring your order through to the suppliers (they give you a list of who you can order from along with all the equipment you need to do your job).

Then about 3 weeks later you get your stuff delivered. It's a very easy process and they are very quick at coming to see you and getting you what you need.

If you need to know anything else, let me know. Happy to help. I've used them 3 times and they've always been very good.

Scully38

dori2o wrote: »

Does anyone know what the timescales are for the call back from Access to Work following the initial call?

I had thought it would be today but as yet I've heard nothing.

It's normally no longer then 2 weeks from the time you ring up to the time you are assigned a caseworker. If it's been longer than that, give them another ring, there's probably just been a hiccup.

ATOS occy health have no right to say what you can/can't use. Every government i've worked for have their own Occy Health department. There's no problems with you using Access to Work and the government department don't have the right to say you have to accept what they give you. you have the legal right to have a chair that is specific to your needs.

If you look in the policy handbooks on reasonable adjustments, you'll see that you have a lot of rights and one of those rights is to have a suitable work station. Your manager should have referred you to Occupational Health after completing a work station assessment. Once your manager did that and found that the chairs they use aren't suitable, then they should have referred you to the disability advisors and HR who should have inturn told you to get ATW in to get you a chair that is suitable to your needs.

Don't let them fob you off. I worked in a lot of government departments and always used ATW.

Starrystarrynight

Hope you've had your reply by now, OP.

I was pleasantly surprised by the speed of the Access to Work process. The DWP seemed to act quickly on my application and it only took a week or two to arrange for the assessment in my office. My assessor said they were targeted to have the report ready within just 2 or 3 days of the assessment.

The slowest part of it all was my employer ordering the support!

dori2o

Scully38 wrote: »

It's normally no longer then 2 weeks from the time you ring up to the time you are assigned a caseworker. If it's been longer than that, give them another ring, there's probably just been a hiccup.

ATOS occy health have no right to say what you can/can't use. Every government i've worked for have their own Occy Health department. There's no problems with you using Access to Work and the government department don't have the right to say you have to accept what they give you. you have the legal right to have a chair that is specific to your needs.

If you look in the policy handbooks on reasonable adjustments, you'll see that you have a lot of rights and one of those rights is to have a suitable work station. Your manager should have referred you to Occupational Health after completing a work station assessment. Once your manager did that and found that the chairs they use aren't suitable, then they should have referred you to the disability advisors and HR who should have inturn told you to get ATW in to get you a chair that is suitable to your needs.

Don't let them fob you off. I worked in a lot of government departments and always used ATW.

Our department did away with their own Occ Health advisors and contracted out to the private sector. Originally it was with Capita who I always found very helpful, but in 2011 they changed to ATOS as did the majority of Gov departments.

After completing the workstation assessment my Manager referred me to ATOS (in house occ health) who came out and despite what was said between me and the OHA in the discussion she went totally against and suggested a chair that had previousy been deemed unsuitable, mainly because it was too big and digs into the back of my knees.

My manager then contacted the OHA and put to her my concerns, to which the OHA said she would not change her opinon/suggestion.

My manager then made a referral for a bespoke Occ Health assessment which woould look at chairs from outside of the employers office supplier.

Thi referral was cancelled by the Health and Welbeing team at HR who said that the Occ Health advisor was a 'trained and competent erson' and that there was no reason to doubt her advice.

At this point the Union stepped in and I'm now off work on Disability Adjustment Leave awaiting the arrival of the recommended chair which should be with us in the next 2-3 weeks.

Despite knowing that the chair is unsuitable I have agreed under duress to trial the chair once it arrives. If the chair is unsuitable then I will again go onto Disability Adjustment Leave until such time as a new chair, which is suitable, is provided.

See below for details of AtW

Starrystarrynight wrote: »

Hope you've had your reply by now, OP.

I was pleasantly surprised by the speed of the Access to Work process. The DWP seemed to act quickly on my application and it only took a week or two to arrange for the assessment in my office. My assessor said they were targeted to have the report ready within just 2 or 3 days of the assessment.

The slowest part of it all was my employer ordering the support!

Access to work called me just over a week ago and arranged for an initial telephone based assessment. This will take place on 11 November at 11am. From this assessment they will then arrange the workplace assessment.

Hopefully at that time they can suggest a suitable chair.


The annoying thing with all of this is that I have identified a chair myself. I know for a fact that it is suitable as I have used it many times. It is the chair that my parents have and it is readily available for less than 1/4 of the cost of the chair that my employer has just ordered.

My employer has so far refused to even discuss that chair as it is from Ikea.

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/70178863/

ukmaggie45

Hi there dori2o, I was pretty certain there were 2 posts recently about access to work, please take a look at my post to the other recent one, perhaps you can get some help from Disability Rights UK.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=66987335&postcount=3

Hope this helps.

Scully38

dori2o wrote: »

Our department did away with their own Occ Health advisors and contracted out to the private sector. Originally it was with Capita who I always found very helpful, but in 2011 they changed to ATOS as did the majority of Gov departments.

After completing the workstation assessment my Manager referred me to ATOS (in house occ health) who came out and despite what was said between me and the OHA in the discussion she went totally against and suggested a chair that had previousy been deemed unsuitable, mainly because it was too big and digs into the back of my knees.

My manager then contacted the OHA and put to her my concerns, to which the OHA said she would not change her opinon/suggestion.

My manager then made a referral for a bespoke Occ Health assessment which woould look at chairs from outside of the employers office supplier.

Thi referral was cancelled by the Health and Welbeing team at HR who said that the Occ Health advisor was a 'trained and competent erson' and that there was no reason to doubt her advice.

At this point the Union stepped in and I'm now off work on Disability Adjustment Leave awaiting the arrival of the recommended chair which should be with us in the next 2-3 weeks.

Despite knowing that the chair is unsuitable I have agreed under duress to trial the chair once it arrives. If the chair is unsuitable then I will again go onto Disability Adjustment Leave until such time as a new chair, which is suitable, is provided.

See below for details of AtW


Access to work called me just over a week ago and arranged for an initial telephone based assessment. This will take place on 11 November at 11am. From this assessment they will then arrange the workplace assessment.

Hopefully at that time they can suggest a suitable chair.


The annoying thing with all of this is that I have identified a chair myself. I know for a fact that it is suitable as I have used it many times. It is the chair that my parents have and it is readily available for less than 1/4 of the cost of the chair that my employer has just ordered.

My employer has so far refused to even discuss that chair as it is from Ikea.

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/70178863/

How did you get on?

dori2o

Scully38 wrote: »

How did you get on?

Hi,

I have a workplace assessment on Tuesday 2 December.

I went to work last Monday as they had received the chair they had ordered and it's unsuitable, just as I said it would be, so currently I'm not in work and won't be until the issue is resolved.

The chair is just too big in every way. It hits the back if my knee, I cannot use my leg rest with it as it's too far away, it doesn't fit under my desk so I'm sat too far away to use the keyboard correctly.

I still don't know why it was ordered considering I'd had the chair before and it was deemed unsuitable..