This October, Martin Searle Solicitors’ Employment Law team are launching ‘Disability Matters’, their annual campaign to stamp out disability discrimination at work. Their campaign will concentrate on neurodiversity in the workplace and some of the challenges neurodivergent people commonly experience.
Neurodiversity covers conditions like ADHD, Autism, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia and Dyscalculia, as well as other cognitive and sensory differences where there are variations in communicative and motor abilities as well as focus.
Despite disability discrimination in the workplace being outlawed we are dealing with increasing numbers of employees experiencing discrimination. A House of Commons report from March 2024 reported that over ten million working age people reported having a disability, which is nearly a quarter of the working age population, and an increase of over 450,000 from the year before.
The latest figures from the Department of Work and Pensions found that just 45% of neurodivergent people are in employment, compared with 53% for all disabled people, and 82% for people without disabilities.
The 2025 City and Guilds Neurodiversity Index Report found that 35% of neurodivergent employees had no support when starting their jobs, and that 37% of managers had not received training on supporting their neurodivergent staff, leaving many unprepared.
Two in five neurodivergent employees said they experienced challenges at work every single day, reinforcing the need for workplaces to put adjustments in place to ensure that all their staff are supported.
A 2024 study from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found that one in five neurodivergent employees had experienced harassment or discrimination at work because of their neurodivergence.
Fiona Martin, Director and Head of Employment Law at Martin Searle Solicitors, says "With increasing awareness and more people being diagnosed, it is important employers understand neurodivergence and when there is a legal requirement to make reasonable adjustments. This is when the worker has a long term mental and/or physical impairment which has a substantially adverse effect on their day to day activities. Our annual disability campaigns educate employers to follow best practice as well as helping workers and employees who have been discriminated against take action. This is because we believe in fairness and equality in the workplace."
Martin Searle Solicitors have produced a series of free factsheets, case studies and FAQs for employers and employees covering basic disability rights, as well as avoiding disability discrimination in the workplace which are available on their website.
Their campaign includes a virtual seminar for charities and non-profit organisations on Managing Ill Health and Disability, run in partnership with Community Works. This takes place on Thursday 23 October at 10.30am. For more information and to book, see here
They will also run a free virtual seminar for employee advisers and Trade Union representatives, on Disability Discrimination in the Workplace, from 10.30am on Thursday 30 October which you can book here.
Martin Searle Solicitors are providing a free 30 minute confidential advice line for employers and employees on disability rights and employer duties throughout October 2025.
Employers, employees and workers can call 01273 609911 from 3.30pm - 5.30pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2 October until 30 October 2025.
For more information, please visit www.ms-solicitors.co.uk/disability-matters