USEFUL INFORMATION

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Potential Workplace Adjustments

ACAS provides a list of reasonable adjustments here

Hard workplace adjustments:

• • Ergonomic equipment: this includes a standing table, chair, mouse, keyboard, laptop stand, screen stand, footstall and a keyboard and mouse pad.

  • Assistive Technology to help with brain fog, processing information and joint pian.

  • Bigger screen; trackball mouse

  • Noise cancelling headphones.

Soft workplace adjustments (examples)

• • Health plans (e.g., for epilepsy and Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan (PEEP).

  • Flexible working hours agreed with your line manager – this includes compressed hours.

  • Job carving

  • Regular breaks in a quiet space to help with pacing – this links to flexible working which can be agreed with your line manager

  • Activate transcription on Teams and record meetings (this can help with note taking and digesting information)

  • Work with your line manager to ensure the two days you come into the office is for collaborative working, learning and big meetings. This will enable staff, to be able to use homeworking days for focused work

  • Provide training and meeting material in advance. This will help to digest the information and to answer questions with more ease

  • Memory: allow time to come back with an answer and more time to process information needed

  • Provide written instructions for tasks via email (be clear and direct in phrasing the work)

  • To agree with the employer for someone you work with to read your work to you.

  • To use a certain font and size to make it easier to read.

(This above is not intended to be an exhaustive list but just some examples of the adjustments that employers can support).

Occupational Health Referral

As an individual, you may be asked to give your consent to a referral to your employer’s Occupational Health (OH) service. This could be for an assessment of your fitness for work or to help your employer consider reasonable adjustments to support you in the workplace. Referrals advise your employer on your health or disability and how these affect your fitness to carry out your work. The report back to your manager gives an objective, expert opinion on your fitness as well as suggestions for how to make it easier for you to carry out your duties. The referral will be carried out with either an occupational health adviser (OHA) or occupational health practitioner (OHP). Generally, OHAs (who tend to be nurses) will deal with single-issue or straightforward issues, while OHPs are generally doctors or GPs who will cover more complex, multiple-issue or longer-term cases.  If the OHA / OHP asks to see you, it gives you the opportunity to talk over, in confidence if required, your health in relation to your work. Your manager will discuss the reason with you prior to referral and you can read the referral form, completed by your manager, which provides the OHA / OHP with information about your job, recent sickness absence and any concerns your manager has. Referral to occupational health is a standard part of an employer’s practice in managing sickness absence. Line managers may request that you consent to a referral to occupational health if you have, for example:

• been off sick continuously for a few weeks

• ongoing health problems

• had frequent short sick absences

• ill-health that could be affecting performance or behaviour

• requested reasonable adjustments for a long-term health condition or disability although initially, your line manager may refer you to discuss the requirement for adjustments with the  Health Safety & Wellbeing Team

• signs you could be suffering ill-health due to stress.

The aim is to collect sufficient information to be able to give an accurate, objective and useful opinion on your fitness to do your job. The OHA / OHP will ask you about health problems or concerns you have and what treatment you are receiving. They will also ask you to describe the work you do and any difficulties you’re experiencing due to your health or other reasons. The OHA / OHP might also ask about your lifestyle outside work and how you travel to work. They may also want to carry out a functional assessment e.g. checking how well you can move your back or use a computer keyboard.

Counselling Services (in-house)

Your employer may have an in-house counselling service which can provide counselling/emotional support and advice on everyday day matters such as finance to finding local plummer, pet care or dentist. They offer support on family care e.g. disability, parenting, family, caring for elderly or a relative.

Mental Health First Aiders

Some employers have teams of Mental Health First Aiders who are colleagues trained to be a confidential listening and signpost to other help.

Agreeing further support

• You should agree a plan with your manager which will be led by you. HR Health and Wellbeing team can also provide advice and support..

• An Occupational Health Assessment may be agreed as part of the next steps to help understand what workplace adjustments could help support you.

• A Desk Assessment may be requested to help understand what equipment may be helpful at home and in the office.

Workplace Adjustments Passport

This is a document that filled in helps employees move from job to job without having to start from scratch again asking for and putting in place workplace adjustments in a new job. They are highly recommended, particularly in complex and hidden conditions. Managers should arrange regular reviews of the workplace passport because individual situations and health conditions change.

• A Workplace Adjustment Passport captures all agreed workplace adjustment requirements of employees, whether physical or non-physical. This minimises the need to re-negotiate workplace adjustments every time they move jobs and when working from home or get a new line manager. It belongs to the employee but the line manager should also have a copy. It should be regularly reviewed.

• It is advisable to keep supporting documents such as assessments as proof of agreement for your Workplace Adjustment. This is in case this information is requested.

• When you start a new role, it is advisable to email the Workplace Adjustment Passport to your new manager and Health and Safety team.

Mental wellbeing in Long Covid and ME

Long Covid and ME are not mental health conditions but their multiple challenges and complex, fluctuating symptoms can give rise to mental health conditions such as anxiety, stress and (sometimes) reactive depression. Joining a local support group of people with ME or Long Covid can be very therapeutic and helpful in terms of sharing information on complex symptoms..

• There is growing evidence from support groups that anxiety (sometimes without depression) is a leading symptom of Long Covid.

Free counselling support may be available through an employer’s in-house counselling services but also through the NHS, private counsellors and not-for-profit organisations such as:

Relate – for relationship advice

Samaritans – for people to talk about what is troubling them at any time

You may also be able to access counselling through a local community, church or social services.

Managing Sick Absences

Absences related to the symptoms of Long Covid and ME would usually be recorded as sickness absences, linked to the main symptoms e.g. fatigue, chest, respiratory.

It is advisable to get to know your employer’s sick absence policies in the light of The Equality Act since ME and Long Covid are in a ‘protected’ category. This means that regular trigger points must be treated with sensitivity and caution.  Your manager should be able to share this information with you in advance of sick leave so that "trigger points" are clear.  There is no evidence that affected staff with appropriate adjustments, take more sick leave than other staff, but knowing about trigger points for further actions on sick absence (particularly when adjustments have not yet been fully implemented) can help reduce stress.  

Occupational health

Your employer’s occupational health service will give advice on preventing or resolving health problems that can affect employees' attendance at work. Line managers can refer their employees to this service, with employee consent, or seek general guidance relating to the health of employees.

Disability Leave

If you have had ME or Long Covid for 12 months, you may be able to access paid leave may be granted to employees who are disabled or have a long-term health condition, if they are fit for work but need time off to attend appointments for treatment, rehabilitation, assessment, or in exceptional circumstances, if an individual is not able to work safely or effectively until workplace adjustments are put in place. This special leave applies to carers as well

Further information on potential therapies

There may be helpful information available on potential lifestyle changes and helpful therapies:

• A GP referral to a specialist or specialist NHS clinic for Long Covid/Chronic Fatigue could help put in place a treatment plan. This may include energy management, looking at lifestyle changes, looking at diet and supplements, looking at sleep patterns and relaxation.

• Occupational therapy referral by your GP can help with understanding pacing. It also looks at activities you do in everyday life and how they can be adapted to support you.

• Physiotherapy appointment referral by your GP can help with pain, for example in your joints.

• Social prescriber/CAB support:   A GP can arrange an appointment to talk through mental and physical wellbeing. They will be able to tell you what support is available for example, group counselling etc. They will also check in with you to see how you are getting on.

• NHS: Your Covid Recovery: provides information and details on recovery

• Post-covid assessment centres:  Lists of organisations are found at the bottom of the page. To be referred please speak to your GP.

• Occupational therapy –a referral by your GP can help with understanding pacing for fatigue. It also looks at activities you do in everyday life and how they can be adapted to support you.

Mobility Aids

Some people find that light mobility aids help them pace themselves and conserve energy in the workplace particularly in ‘campus’ settings.  Without endorsement of any of these products, here are examples of aids being successfully used (by some people with ME) in the workplace:

• Light electric scooter  ITravelscoot).  (These may not be permitted on some trains).

• Smaller wheelchair (Whill Model C2)

• Wheelchair that folds into a suitcase (Moving Life scooter)

• Nordic walking poles (Mountain Warehouse) Nordic walking poles take the effort out of walking and going uphill

• Walking sticks   (Cosmopolitan walking stick)

• Crutches (Cool Crutches)

Rapid recharge’ using Alexander Constructive Rest Position

Some people with ME have found that this position speeds up recovery from PEM: 

• The Constructive Rest Position - for micro breaks and PEM

Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome

• Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (PoTS)

• Postural Tachycardia Syndrome in Long Covid

Setting up a Long Covid and ME staff group as a community of learning in your workplace

It is widely recognised that meeting with others who have the same (hidden) condition can  be particularly uplifting and therapeutic.  Your employer may have a staff disability network and either has or can start a disability sub-group for those with Long Covid and ME (since these conditions easily sit together due to their common management regime).  These employee groups provide a forum for discussion of how to manage these conditions in the workplace, how to access medical advice, how to speak with line managers and what to request from them.  They can also circulate wider information. Alternating the leadership of staff groups e.g. among 2-3 staff relieves the workload for one already challenged employee who has either ME or Long Covid. It can become community of expertise, learning, support and knowledge inthe management of profound fatigue/cognitive issues in people with Long Covid and ME.  This website is the product of such a workplace network.

Its mission can include

• bringing together those with post viral conditions and/or those with relatives and friends with post viral conditions to share their learning and knowledge

• collating best practice advice agailable and promulgating it widely (including this toolkit)

• encouraging regular informal meet-up meetings

• giving presentations and inviting external speakers.

Relevant Contacts and Further Information

• Covid Charity

• ME Association website (which also supports those with Long Covid – charges for guidance sheets)

• Diagnosis of ME 

• Personal stories from sufferers

• Action for ME  (offers free guidance)

Confidentiality and disclosure

Every employee has the right to privacy in respect of their medical status. It is essential that information is only shared where necessary (such as if the employee divulges a threat to life, self-harm or suicidal thoughts) and with the consent of the employee.

Disclosure without consent can be distressing for the employee concerned and in some instances breaches:

·       the Data Protection Act 2018;

·       the Equality Act 2010; or

·       GDPR requirements.