Our purpose and mission

We’re here for everyone who is impacted by a disability (visible or non-visible) or by an underlying medical condition.

We’re not just a support network. We’re also here to raise awareness and understanding of conditions and to influence the company’s ways of working. Our aim is to enable all affected colleagues to be at their best.

Type of activities and events we organise/support

We’re one of the newest Employee Resource Groups – we only launched in 2019 – but already we’ve:

  • Begun to develop a network of local contacts
  • Introduced disability point of contacts – colleagues with experience of a particular condition who can provide support and guidance to others
  • Presented at ‘lunch and learn’ events and management meetings to grow awareness
  • Created an active and growing Yammer group as a forum for sharing and helping each other
  • Brought in sunflower lanyards for those with hidden conditions
  • Held a very successful first annual conference

During 2020 we’ll be building on those foundations and using our influence to make a real difference.

Some highlights from the last 12 months

Inaugural annual conference completes a great first year for our newest Employee Resource Group

2019 saw the launch of OPEN, our Employee Resource Group for everyone who is impacted by a disability (visible or non-visible) or underlying medical condition.

During the year we made a lot of progress in raising issues and growing awareness and we saw more and more colleagues feel they could give discuss their conditions and concerns safely and openly for the first time.

The feedback we’ve received has helped reinforce the importance of what we’re doing, and it’s been great to see other positive signs, including:

  • People Like Me – stories written by colleagues about what makes them different; many of the stories have discussed disability, medical conditions and mental health, and the
  • Mental Health Champions – a growing network of colleagues who raise awareness and encourage conversation about mental well-being as well as providing a signposting service for those with mental health

A highlight for OPEN was our inaugural annual conference which featured talks by a number of colleagues including our chairman Richard Slocock, who has become a champion climber while living with the progressive loss of his sight.

Our keynote speaker was Isabelle Weall, an inspirational teenager and YouTuber. Izzy contracted meningitis when she was seven and had all four limbs amputated, but has set herself new challenges, becoming a national trampolining champion and aiming to take up motor racing.

We were further inspired by the amazing attendance for the conference and the very positive feedback we’ve received, and we’ll be building on that momentum in 2020.

Contact details

Email: [email protected]