Strategies for Creating a Supportive Workplace for Parents of Children with Disabilities

Over a an ombre background, lilac on the left merging with aqua blue on the right, the words ‘Strategies for Creating a Supportive Workplace for Parents of Children with Disabilities’ are in white, bold text over a black background. Four semi-transparent photographs are scattered around the graphic, an oval shape containing ‘Flexible Work Schedule Agreement’ written on a piece of paper with a pen resting on it, a circle with an office meeting scene, a children’s drawing showing two adults standing either side of a child using a wheelchair, with colouring pencils scattered around the drawing, and a heart shape containing two adults and a child smiling at one another

Working parents can face difficulties when it comes to balancing their professional and parental responsibilities.

Parents of children with disabilities can find this even more challenging, with the multitude of additional needs required to look after a disabled child.

The increased demands of caring for disabled children alongside the pressures of work can impact the mental and physical well-being of parents.

Businesses aim to be supportive of working parents, with enhanced parental leave and flexible working policies. However, it is important to consider if this extends to parents raising children with disabilities, and if there is anything more that employers can do to better support employees who have disabled children.

There are several ways that businesses can better support these parents, from healthcare benefits to disability awareness and equality training.

These initiatives can have positive impacts on the wider business and improve the overall culture and satisfaction of all employees. In this guide, we’ll look at different strategies that businesses can adopt to better support employees raising children with disabilities.

Embrace and encourage flexible work

Flexible work continues to be a much-debated topic for employers and employees alike. Businesses that are continuing to embrace flexible work schedules are championed for supporting the well-being of all employees, promoting a better work-life balance for workers and even seeing increases in productivity.

Flexible working can better support parents of disabled children, as it allows parents to work around vital medical appointments, therapy or treatment sessions.

Setting clear deadlines and having regular check-ins will ensure that there is a mutual understanding between employers and employees that work will be done when it needs to be completed, but there is less emphasis on when that work occurs.

While embracing flexible work can make a huge impact, actively encouraging staff and reminding them of your policies can help your employees feel comfortable to work flexibly without fear of it reflecting badly on them.

Having the autonomy to schedule work commitments around parental responsibilities, without having to use precious holiday days or unpaid Parental Leave is valuable.

Create and uphold well-defined career paths and personal development plans

For many parents of children with disabilities, it can be hard to consider career progression when your personal life is so demanding.

Therefore, they can be vulnerable to career stagnation. So, it’s important to talk with parental caregivers about their overall career goals and work together on an appropriate personal development plan (PDP) that is achievable alongside their responsibilities as a parent.

Creating a career path that is personalised to employees' work objectives with transparency in mind will outline timelines for progression and help parents with disabled children stay engaged and motivated at work and reassure them that they won’t be overlooked for promotions or opportunities.

Review your corporate healthcare plan to include mental health treatment

Healthcare packages have become an increasingly popular benefit for businesses. While healthcare plans can support employees with healthcare issues such as dental and optical care, and other physical ailments, one area that is often overlooked and not included in corporate health packages is comprehensive mental health treatment.

Understanding what is, and is not, covered when it comes to mental health support can help you to update your package, or seek other support that your employees have access to, such as money towards counselling sessions.

Review what Employee Assistance Services (EAP) are available to employees within your health plan. EAPs provide employees with confidential advice and support for a range of personal and work-related issues in a variety of accessible formats, from face-to-face to telephone and online. Some EAPs are also available to employees' family members, meaning the whole family can benefit from services like counselling and behavioural or mental health therapies.

Once you’ve reviewed the healthcare plans, and updated them if required, be sure to share this with employees, highlighting the benefits and services available to them, and their families. Proudly advertising these benefits can help to encourage employees to use these services, providing important support they may require.

Make space for open conversations about mental health in the workplace

Being the parent of a child with disabilities can take its toll on one's mental health. Having to juggle the responsibilities and demands of looking after a family while also trying to perform or progress at work can lead to burnout. 

It can be daunting talking to your employees about mental, or physical health. Equally, employees can feel a lot of anxiety when it comes to talking to their manager or HR departments about their health, or the health of their family.

This can lead to the avoidance of open conversations about the sensitive and personal topic of health. Unfortunately, without these vital conversations, problems can spiral and start to have an impact on the performance of individuals, and the potential of your business too.

To avoid getting to this point, it is important to encourage open conversations between managers and their direct reports. The best way to navigate workplace conversations about mental health treatment centres on fostering an environment that encourages open conversations about all health issues.

From menopause to mental health, dyslexia to disabilities, there are a variety of issues that employees can face that may impact their work. 

Equipping managers and senior leaders within your company with the tools to navigate these conversations in a balanced and unbiased way will ensure that employees feel comfortable approaching their managers to discuss health concerns and working together to find solutions or reasonable adjustments to improve their situation. 

Invest in disability equality education for your employees

There are many types of disabilities that people can live with. From learning difficulties to physical disabilities, some disabilities can be more obvious, while others are invisible. Different disabilities impact those living with them, and their families, to varying degrees and the level of support needed and available to them also varies.

Similarly, like many other minority groups, people living with disabilities can face discrimination in the workplace.

Therefore, it is important to educate your employees on the different definitions of disability and the way that disabilities can impact aspects of life. Investing in disability equality training can help to reframe how disabled people are viewed in society, and in the workplace.

Training can help employees gain a better understanding of appropriate language to describe disabled people, helping parents of disabled children to have conversations with their colleagues about the struggles they and their child face.

Having the space to talk about this with people who have an understanding of the challenges and terminology can help parents with disabled children feel understood by their colleagues. In turn, it can also help colleagues better understand what their teammates are going through, and offer to help out with workload if needed.

Creating an inclusive environment for all employees can boost overall satisfaction in the workplace, and for those living with a disability, or with family members and children with disabilities, it will allow them to feel supported and understood at work.

Final Thoughts

To best support parents with disabled children, businesses should look at reviewing, updating and improving their workplace practices to be as inclusive and equitable as possible.

Reviewing policies and health care packages, investing in training and championing flexible working will not only provide support for parents of children with disabilities, it can also positively impact the health and well-being of all your employees.

In turn, this can increase overall employee satisfaction, improve productivity and reduce turnover, making your business the leaders in diversity and inclusivity.

The same graphic motif as the first graphic, but with following bullet points; ‘Review, update and improve workplace policies to be inclusive and equitable’, ‘Champion flexible working’, ‘offer well-defined career paths and personal development plans’, ‘offer, health care packages inclusive of mental health services’, and finally, ‘Provide Disability Equality Training for all employees’.

This article was written by Chris Harley exclusively for Equal Lives