Throughout my career in education, I have seen first-hand the challenges that neurodivergent people come up against.
When I started my career in the late 1980s there was little information on neurodiversity and certainly little training on how to deal with the needs of neurodivergent individuals. But in 2003, I was fortunate enough to work at a college with students diagnosed with Aspergers. The college was unique in offering these students the support they needed.
Read more: Half of neurodivergent employees don’t feel supported at work
But too many people in that position don't get the support they need, and aren’t able to succeed to their full potential. Since that experience, I've been clear that, as a society, we need to change.
And this includes in the workplace. At present, there is some great practice from large private sector employers and charities supporting neurodiverse people to navigate the workplace. But far too many employers are unsure how to handle the topic in a way that is sensitive to the needs of their neurodivergent employees. This is where good data must come in.
To tackle this issue, City & Guilds teamed up with Do-IT Solutions to create the first Neurodiversity Index Report in 2022, using data from more than 1,000 employees and employers.
Our most recent report, published this year, shed light on important developments in workplace support for neurodivergent people. It found that 35% of organisations have had one or more senior leaders share that they were neurodivergent. Meanwhile, 50% of people had been off work during the last year because of neurodivergence-related challenges.
Read more: How to create a thriving neurodiverse workplace
The report also found that 28% of organisations reported not having any accommodations for parents or care givers of neurodiverse children.
Gathering the same data year after year provides not just a static snapshot of how things are but a dynamic view of how things are changing. For instance, the 2024 report revealed that more workplaces are putting in place alternative application processes (40% up from 35% in the 2023 report). But at the same time, the number of organisations saying they considered inclusion policies to be important dipped to 49% from 53% in the 2023 report.
This matters because the challenges that neurodivergent people face aren’t going away. An area which we explored for the first time last year was how workplaces do or don’t support parents to provide appropriate care for their neurodiverse children. Whilst 28% of organisations reported not having made any accommodations for the parents of neurodiverse children, 33% said they have plans to introduce these in the future.
Read more: We must celebrate neurodivergence, not just accept it
We’re hopeful that in gathering all of this data again, in next year’s report, we can see how things are changing and make recommendations as to how the situation can be improved. Because only from good data can you make good recommendations.
By Dick Palmer, non-executive chair of the City & Guilds Foundation
