In reply to Ope:

Hi Ope

Can you just confirm whether they told you they have been diagnosed with ADHD, or whether they have simply told you they have it??

In reply to David Perry:

Hi David,

They told me they had it, not they were diagnosed

In reply to Sophie:

Hi Sophie,

Thank you for your response.

The only issue we have had is the lateness, so I don't see why making the adjustments would be an issue.

More than happy to try that and see if it works, I think my next hurdle will be dealing with management as we have not had a case like this before.

Hi,

The fact that they are consistently late does strongly indicate ADHD.

You do not need a formal diagnosis to be entitled to reasonable adjustments.

I don't support going down the occupational health route BUT I do support asking the person if they would like support with a formal diagnosis - support should include finincial help towards a private dx if you provide healthcare (I recommend this as best practice for all employers). For some people validation by being formerly diagnosed is postive for their mental health. The person may wish to consider medication to treat unwanted characteristics (lateness) for this you need a dx in-line with NICE recommendations. Just a note of caution, meds will not be suitable for everyone and there is a crisis with a shortage of ADHD meds currently in the UK.

Reiterating the expectation and also putting in consequences will not help if it is ADHD.

What will help (which you may be unlikely to be advised of by a non-specialist Occ Health provider):

1) schedule a meeting with the person (I would suggest that this is without the line manager if tensions have begun to become strained between them and the employee) - at a time and in a format that is best for them to be most comfortable and be able to effectively communicate and process (for example on-line versus in-person).

2) explore ways that the employee can be supported to be on-time, or as close to on-time as possible - this could include

Text reminders and calls at regular intervals in the lead up to the time they have to leave the house to get to work

Buddying - with a friend/work colleague ringing the person and staying on the phone with them while they walk out of the house and get in the car/on the bus (this is a version of body doubling which you can read more about here: add.org/.../)


Yes this is work for someone, it is a reasonable adjustment and the employer will need to decide if it's reasonable i.e. can it be done? dcan you afford it? will it be effective? How does it impact others and is the impact on others acceptable?

The particular strengths of individuals with ADHD do often outweigh some of the pastural work and effort that needs to be done though - ensure that this is considered and taken on board by the line manager with effective support and training.

3) Challenge the actual impact of the employees lateness with the line manager - apart from being annoyed, what real consequences are there of the person being late, in -terms of the person meeting their targets, productivity or with respect to the overall team productivity and KPI's. If there are none, then I'd suggest that some better acceptance and understanding is needed, and a real effort is made to work with the person on how they can be supported to be on time.

4) I would recommend ultimately a specialist workplace assessment - by an ADHD specialist, to identify any other adjustments or neurodivergent conditions/adjustments - these will often need to sought privately, although there are some larger neurodivergence specialist occupational health providers.

In reply to Patrick Wurie:

In our induction process we include the question, do you have any medical conditions/disabilities you want the company to be aware of.

In reply to David Perry:

I know both from friends' experiences and as a school governor that getting a diagnosis for ADHD, Autism etc is not easy. My friend's son was eventually diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 16 when she had been fighting to work out what was wrong with him since primary school and sadly that time without a diagnosis meant he didn't get the support he needed which could have made a huge difference when taking his GCSEs. I also used to work with someone who was struggling and from their own research thought they may have ADHD but again they couldn't access the services to get a diagnosis because the system is overwhelmed and the waiting lists were something like 2years to get an assessment. As an employer, even without an official diagnosis we worked with the person to understand the types of adjustments which might help and implemented them, which did have a positive impact - it was win-win for both employee and employer!

In reply to Sophie:

So ADHD only makes them late coming back from lunch?? Somehow they can manage to arrive on time but not at lunch time?

1., Do you accept every self diagnosis of employees? Are you a medically qualified person to make have medical opinions? Is it a good management policy to do so?

2, As you seem to suggest that making 'reasonable', adjustments applies to someone who self diagnoses ADHD or indeed says they've been told they have ADHD does this mean you make allowances for everyone who claims to have some disability?

3. You are expecting a company to make "reasonable", adjustments just because an employee wants to be able to come in at the time they agree to. In this case have a longer lunch break than the rest.. I have worked on the shop floor in companies where your stance would be totally abused. Everyone would declare they had ADHD and want 'adjustments'. I'd also ask yourself what message are you giving to other staff, who might or might not have ADHD but manage their time keeping well?

4. As for changing their start time to 8:15 so that they will arrive at 8:30, won't - or probably won't make a drop of difference. They know that that the real start time is 8;30, so will still be late. Then what will you do. Give them a warning?

5. ADHD effects individuals in different ways. How do you know it is the cause of the lateness in this employee?

6. When you refer someone to OHP you want to know two things:-
a) What is the medical diagnosis', It is quite common for an OHP to then request the GP notes where there is need for any clarity or other diagnosis.
b) How does it effect their day to day functioning at work
c) Are there any adjustments that help (It is up to the company to decide wether these are reasonable and can or cannot be accommodated).

In reply to David Perry:

1. I'm not sure how "accepting what someone is telling me" would equate to "me making a medical opinion" - can you elaborate? I haven't actually made any medical judgment - the individual *potentially* has made a judgment about themselves, but I haven't. Out of interest, do you require obvious physical disabilities to be confirmed by a doctor's note?
As someone else has pointed out, some diagnoses can take years to come through - take, for example, endometriosis, the average time to diagnosis is 7-8 years. ADHD waiting lists are around 2 years in many areas of the country. So should individuals suffer from lack of reasonable adjustments for years, just because a doctor can't diagnose them in that time? Given employers are required to make reasonable adjustments if they know *or should have known* about a disability...this would be one way to guarantee a tribunal claim.
Can I ask why you *wouldn't* make requested reasonable adjustments for someone who claims to have a disability? Bearing in mind the adjustments are reasonable - that's the whole point - and the person asking obviously believes it will make a difference to their working environment.

2. If someone tells me they have a disability, or says they require reasonable adjustments under EQ2010, I would first seek to make the reasonable adjustments. Perhaps I've made reasonable adjustments for a tonne of people who don't have a disability. But so what? If an adjustment is reasonable and enables someone to do their job more effectively and has a positive impact on their wellbeing and business output, what does it matter whether or not someone is disabled? We're not making UNreasonable adjustments...so what's the issue? If someone is claiming to have a disability and benefits from reasonable adjustments as a result, it has a null impact on those also benefiting from adjustments or from not needing adjustments. If someone is being just plain dishonest, the adjustments aren't going to fix whatever gripes they have with the employer so they will continue being a pain and will exit some other way.

3. ADHD does not manifest the same way for all ADHDers, so those that require the adjustment would be entitled to it if it's reasonable for the employer to accommodate. The message sent to other staff is that we're a flexible, inclusive employer who will enable our employees to succeed. The whole point of inclusivity and legislation aimed at building inclusivity is the recognition that one size doesn't fit all. I'm not expecting an employer to make reasonable adjustments because an employee fancies it; I'm expecting them to make reasonable adjustments because their employee has informed them they are required. I'm not suggesting that the employee can come in at a time they agree to - they don't get carte blanche, that would be unreasonable. But if it doesn't have an unreasonable impact on the business for them to extend their working day by 30mins to give leeway for their lateness, and it takes the stress out of it for them, and it means managers are not having the same repeated conversation over a 10 minute lateness....then yes, I see a good pay off in a bit of flexibility.

4. Yes, exactly that. The purpose of giving them "flexi-time" is that they always attempt to start their day at 8am or 8:15am. Given their tendency for 10 minute lateness, by attempting to start at that time they should still make it in by 8:30 even on their bad days. They can choose to still only aim for an 8:30 start time, in which case we're likely to experience the same lateness issues. I would highlight the adjustments that have been made and give the evidence that they are still late despite this, and therefore they receive a warning.

5. You don't. How do you know it *isn't* the cause of the lateness for this employee?

In reply to Nicola:

We have this included in ours and nothing was mentioned