Disabled staff at Wigan's hospital trust more likely to experience bullying from manager

Disability equality charity Scope said the figures – which come from the NHS staff survey conducted in 2022 – were "deplorable" and urged the Government to better protect disabled workers' rights.

The data shows 16.1 per cent of disabled staff at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (WWL) experienced bullying, harassment or abuse in the previous 12 months.

This fell to 9.5 per cent of non-disabled staff, meaning disabled employees were 1.7 times as likely to experience harassment.

Juliette Tate, chief people officer at WWL, said: “We had already identified that our data had presented concerning trends in relation to the experience of our disabled staff and were deeply troubled by this. We are actively engaging with our workforce to understand their experience and putting proactive actions in place that will address this.

"We are proud to have an active staff network that supports our staff with disabilities and long-term health conditions and have recently engaged with the network to understand the experience of our staff beyond the data that we have been presented with.

“We believe that bullying and harassment is completely unacceptable and will take necessary action where bullying is found to be evident.”

Across England, 16.4 per cent of disabled staff said they experienced harassment, bullying or abuse from a manager – 1.7 times more likely than non-disabled employees.

Thomas Hamilton-Shaw, policy manager at Scope, said: "It’s deplorable that disabled people are more likely to experience bullying from colleagues and abuse from the public.

"Our public sector should be leading the way when it comes to disability employment.

"For too long it’s been too hard for disabled people to get into work, stay in work and thrive in work. This needs to change."

The figures show 25.7 per cent of disabled staff at WWL said they experienced harassment, bullying or abuse from colleagues in the last 12 months – higher than the 15.5 per cent of their non-disabled colleagues.

Similarly, disabled employees were more likely to be abused by the public, with 28.2 per cent reporting at least one instance in the last year, compared to 20.1 per cent of non-disabled staff.

Mr Hamilton-Shaw said the Government must address this by strengthening the Disability Confident scheme so employers "actually improve conditions on the ground", and increase funding for the Equalities and Human Rights Commissions to better protect disabled workers.

He urged employers to "actively improve their working environment", including implementing reverse mentor schemes for senior and mid-level employees.

Dr Navina Evans, NHS England’s chief workforce, training and education officer, said: "While the latest data shows some progress in reducing the proportion of disabled staff experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from their managers, there is clearly significant work still to do and it remains completely unacceptable that anyone is experiencing this at work.

"Discrimination and bullying have no place in the NHS, and that is why as part of our equality, diversity and inclusion improvement plan, trusts will be expected to take proactive and preventive action to reduce incidents of harassment, bullying and abuse experienced by staff with a disability, as well as by those who share other protected characteristics."