Disability Confident Scheme at the West Yorkshire Combined Authority

As many of you may already be aware, the West Yorkshire Combined Authority has been Disability Confident accredited at Level 1 for some time now.  As part of our celebration of Disability History Month (16 Nov to 16 Dec) we are excited to inform you that we have recently been successful in applying for Disability Confident Level 2 accreditation and we are now officially a “Disability Confident Employer”! 

Moving to being a Disability Confident Employer shows the journey that the Combined Authority has been on over recent years with our EDI vision to be recognised nationally for our focus and commitment to EDI and we could not have done this without the work our colleagues have all been doing across the organisation.  Whilst we know this is a positive step to achieving our vision, the work on this does not stop here as we have more to do in becoming a Leader in EDI and a Disability Confident Leader (which is the 3^rd and final level of accreditation).

If you would like to read more about the steps we will need to take to become a Leader, you can read about this on the gov.uk website.

We will be updating the Disability Confident Logo on our stationery and website so please look out for the ‘purple Employer’ logo which will be replacing the ‘pink Committed’ logo.

We will now start work on our journey to become a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader to ensure we will be ready to apply for this once our accreditation as a Disability Confident Employer ends in 2026.  Colleagues from HR, EDI and the WeCan network will work together in supporting this work, however this will require all colleagues’ support to ensure we are inclusive of our disabled colleagues and applicants. To help with understanding how this will fit in with our work, we have asked all employees to complete the Disability Awareness module that has recently been added to a list of development courses, so everyone now has the option to complete.

Earlier this year we launched the new  Workplace Adjustments Passport as part of the Workplace Adjustments Policy and we are encouraging colleagues to complete this with their line manager.

Find out more about the WeCan network – this information is included within this inclusive feature on this site. 

An aspect of being accredited to the Disability Confident Scheme is that we will guarantee an interview for candidates who share they have a disability on their application form when they apply to work for us, subject to them meeting the minimum essential criteria.

We are really proud as to what we have achieved recently as an organisation and excited to see how the Combined Authority will grow over the next 3 years as we work towards becoming a Disability Confident Leader.