The British Library: disability and diversity training

November 2009

There are many contributing factors that affect health and wellbeing issues, and the British Library wanted to help all staff understand and acknowledge these better. To achieve this, consultants, trainers and experts who work first hand in related relevant areas were invited to present at the Library’s action groups.

There are action groups covering disability, gender and race, which are made up of various key representatives from the Library. The groups are tasked with implementing and raising the profile and support of equality schemes and action plans. The groups have a variety of roles, including:

•    Raising awareness and facilitating culture change at the Library,

•    Delivering on disability confidence, and

•    Delivering on the connections between and impact of diversity strands.

The main trigger for inviting speakers to present to the action groups was a presentation given by a speaker from Shift, an initiative to tackle stigma and discrimination surrounding mental health issues in England.

The presentation was given in 2008 to the Disability Action Group, and colleagues were very interested in the issues, both at a personal and professional level. They were keen to learn more and do something constructive on creating policy and best practice.

Mental health sub-group

The DAG has now set up a sub-group on mental health. The terms of reference and remit of the sub-group includes:

•    Examining current employment and service policy, practice and arrangements on mental health across the Library,

•    Implementing best practice with support from the DAG,

•    Developing a bespoke mental health policy for employees on how the Library can support individuals with a mental health illness.

The sub-group first met in December 2008, and it is made up of representatives of members of the DAG group and other staff. The sub-group have established good links with Shift and the Library's Employee Assistance Programme / Wellbeing Organisers, and has already carried out best practice research into mental health.

After the Shift presentation, speakers from other groups were invited to speak, including Refuge, AGender and Stonewall. There are obvious links for these subject areas for the Disability Action Group (DAG) and the information was shared with the DAG.

The DAG and action groups also link into the Front Line Services Diversity Group (FLSDG) which is made up of managers and staff from the Library's frontline services (e.g. catering, cleaning, security, welcome team, reader services, bookshop etc).

Some of the prime considerations for FLSDG are:

1.    Improving support for staff and service users who experience or witness abuse from the public in the Library.  

Challenging behaviour experienced by public and retail sectors is reported to be increasing, and it has an affect on health and wellbeing. The Library is reviewing policy and practice on the prevention and management of abuse at work, which links in with internal domestic violence, harrassment, bullying and discrimination policies.

One of the main areas of actions for the Mental Health sub-group is:

1.  Increasing staff understanding of service users with mental health and wellbeing issues.

Nearly 400 frontline service staff have had training in disability confidence and mystery shopping has been used to test the training’s impact.

Future plans

The Library is investigating becoming a member of Mindful Employer and other initiatives that support and promote progress and commitment in this area. Our Trade Unions are completely supportive of our commitment to raising awareness of mental illnesses and creating an inclusive environment for disabled people. Members of the Union sit on all Action Groups and the Mental Health Sub Group.  

By employing diverse and knowledgable people, the Library will be able to improve its service provision to help meet its aim of being a service of choice. As a public building with hundreds of visitors each day, the Library provides services to a very diverse audience and this will help us to ensure our staff are able to deal with readers, visitors and the public who have mental health illnesses in the appropriate way.  

This will help us to:

•    Follow best practice,

•    Have a safe and inclusive environment for employees and visitors to enable all to experience the Library in a positive way,

•    Attract more visitors and help to sustain funding for our initiatives, and

•    Fulfil the Library’s business strategy and key principles about being a Library for everyone.

The Library’s HR team now want to focus more on managing mental health issues and the safety and wellbeing of service users, employees and the public. This could be in relation to a diagnosable condition like Tourettes or bipolar disorder, or to drugs or alcohol.