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What other benchmarking initiatives exist and how does the Disability Standard differ?

There are a number of existing initiatives that measure disability and provide standards to work towards. These include the Two Ticks Disability Symbol and the Equality Standard for local government.

The Disability Symbol (‘two ticks’) is a government initiative and was developed so that employers were able to demonstrate their commitment to employing and retaining disabled people. It is a communication tool that can be used to encourage disabled people to apply for jobs. Employers who use the symbol make five commitments to action. They are:

• A guaranteed job interview
• Consulting disabled employees regularly
• Retaining employees if they become disabled
• Improving knowledge
• Checking progress and planning ahead

Symbol users are expected to put the symbol on all job advertisements, as well as internal vacancies and application forms.

The symbol was launched prior to the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and work that an employer undertakes to implement the five symbol commitments would certainly contribute to working to the spirit of disability legislation. However, it is important to understand that using the symbol does not in itself mean an organisation will meet the requirements of the DDA.

The Equality Standard for Local Government is designed to ensure that local authorities consider gender, race and disability equality issues at all levels of council policy and practice. Local authorities are able to assess their progress based on five levels:

• Commitment to a comprehensive equality policy
• Assessment and consultation
• Setting equality objectives and targets
• Information systems and monitoring against targets
• Achieving and reviewing outcomes

This Equality Standard provides a systematic framework for the mainstreaming of equalities.

The Disability Standard is the only management tool that enables organisations to accurately measure their performance on disability, in every way that it affects the business and provides the information in the form of a diagnostic report that helps organisations to design and deliver action plans for the future.

The Disability Standard Assessment contains over 100 questions and 35 requests for evidence and provides an extremely detailed look at how individual organisations are performing on disability. It delivers information on current legislative requirements, codes of practice and best practice guidance in the directory that helps organisations to take a systematic approach to assessing disability related risk – legal and reputational - and to compare their performance with competitors and others.

There is no other existing measurement tool on disability that provides such a level of focus across an entire organisation.