NHS England has been engaging with staff, such as Disabled NHS Directors Network to work towards making changes so that the visibility of disabled leaders within care roles is increased, and the NHS Workforce Disability Equality Standard Report for 2021 was released this year sharing their findings that there has been an increase of 3.4% of disabled employees within senior management position in the NHS. This follows the data of 2020 that saw 2.8% of disabled staff in senior management roles within the NHS.

The NHS Electronic Staff Record has shown that more than 52,000 people working within the NHS declared a disability, an increase of 6,870.

More than 76.6% of disabled staff working in the NHS have also felt an increase in feeling that their employer made sufficient adjustments for their individual roles.

Another significant improvement has been the number of disabled staff that have felt valued for their contributions within the working environment which has increased over the past 12 months to 39.4%

It has also been reported that disabled applicants are 1.11 times less likely to be appointed from shortlisting compared to non-disabled applicants, however, this is an improvement from 1.20 in 2020, while it is not a huge leap there is still progress that has been made.

This progress should encourage other sectors to make changes so that their working environments are inclusive to those who have a disability, so that action in all sectors can be taken to ensure that disabled workers are treated fairly and presented with the same opportunities as non-disabled employees.

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