EFD Conference: Best Practice Masterclass

16th June 2011, 10:00am - 4:00pm, London

Improving access for disabled people as your customers, your applicants and your employees.

Our most popular topics - delivered on one day, in one central location, at one cost effective price.

The Best Practice Masterclass is a new annual full-day event bringing you the highlights of the Employers' Forum on Disability training and events programme in one day, in one central location and at one cost effective price. 

We've listened to feedback from delegates and other colleagues from our members and produced this day featuring 3 of the most popular topics in our training and events programme.  At the event you can attend two of the three workshops on offer and receive the usual high quality EFD training at a reduced rate.

On the day we will run three interactive workshops providing you with the latest information on the areas which matter most to our members. You can choose to attend any two of the three workshops:

1. Welcoming Disabled Customers
2. Barrier-free Recruitment
3. Sickness absence and Return to Work

The sessions will be led by the disability experts who have delivered some of our most successful events. They will be joined by inspirational speakers and top UK businesses talking about their journey towards Disability Confidence.

Speakers include:

• Kate Nash OBE, Director, Kate Nash Associates
• Bela Gor, Legal Director, EFD
• Graeme Whippy, Senior Manager, Group Disability Programme, Lloyds Banking Group
• Rick Williams CFCIPD, Director, Freeney Williams
• Helen Cooke, Director, My Plus Consulting
• Tracey Abbott, Recruitment adviser, EFD
• Kerry Smith, Senior disability consultant, EFD
• Brendan Roach, Senior disability consultant, EFD

Why attend?

At the workshops our experts will explore:

1. Welcoming Disabled Customers

• The key issues you need to consider when serving disabled people as your customers
• The range of ways customers access your organisation and the barriers they can face at each of these access points
• How to welcome people with specific impairments
• What are the common misunderstandings and misconceptions about disabled customers and how can you and your staff avoid falling into these traps
• Language and etiquette - what to ask, when and how
• The Equality Act and provision of goods, facilities and services

2. Barrier-free Recruitment

• What are the recruitment barriers faced by disabled people applying for your jobs
• How has the advance of technology changed the barriers disabled people face applying for jobs
• What are the most common mistakes made by recruiters which make it difficult for disabled people
• Examples of reasonable adjustments that enable candidates to apply for jobs
• The Equality Act and your legal responsibilities as a recruiter
• Relationships with external recruitment agencies and how to make this work for you and your prospective candidates

3. Sickness Absence and Return to Work

• How to manage disability related sickness absence including different approaches e.g. case management approach
• The role of the Disability Management Coordinator - who can take on this role and what they need to do
• How to make 'Access to Work' work for your staff
• When is it appropriate to use health and risk assessments and who should carry them out
• How to record sickness absence to enable you to effectively monitor and evaluate
• When adjustments for sickness absence are reasonable and when they are not

Who should attend?

HR managers and business partners, diversity managers, disability specialists.