For Organisations

Disability Equality Training

We deliver Disability Equality Training for businesses with modules designed for Non-Executive and Executive Directors, Senior Managers, Middle Managers, Supervisors and front line staff.

Our Training is designed to enable businesses to create barrier free environments and to be inclusive of Disabled People in all aspects from recruitment and management to back office and customer facing operations.

Our Training ensures that participants develop their confidence to talk openly about Disability without embarrassment or fear of causing offence, understand the barriers experienced by Disabled People and how to remove these in the workplace, and to be seen by Disabled People as a Disability-friendly business.

Our Training enables businesses to achieve their Corporate Social Responsibility goals and to fulfil their statutory duties under the Equality Act.

We can design and deliver bespoke training modules to meet the specific needs and requirements of any business.

Research and Consultancy

We carry out small scale research projects to gather the views and lived experiences of disabled people on a variety of topics. Most recently we have involved groups of disabled people in Manchester in focus groups on their experiences of accessing healthcare, in the changing context of neighbourhood based approaches and the new Local Care Organisation. We are about to begin a small project by Manchester Health and Care Commissioning on disabled people’s experiences of health screening programmes. This will particularly focus on barriers to accessing such programmes, the potential solutions to these.

Customer Involvement

Disability Design Reference Group (DDRG) – since 2009 to date we have been contracted by Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) to manage an involvement process through which Disabled People contribute to the development of TfGM infrastructure, facilities and services which meet the requirements of the Equality Act 2010. This has ensured that TfGM takes account of the knowledge, lived experiences and access requirements of Disabled People within its work including infrastructure projects, policies, procedures and strategies. The effectiveness of this approach has been recognised through the National Rail Awards in September 2015, where the DDRG was awarded in the ‘Putting Passengers First’ category. Judges praised the group’s attention to detail, good quality feedback and excellent design improvements.

The DDRG model can be adapted to meet the requirements of businesses in any sector or market that seeks to make its products and services more accessible to Disabled People either for one-off or short term projects or projects with a longer lifespan.

For Employers, Recruiters and HR Professionals

Many employers, recruiters and HR professionals recognise that a lack of knowledge and personal experience of Disability can result in inadvertent discrimination and exclusion of Disabled People from employment opportunities with their business and frustrate their aims to be an inclusive and equal opportunity employer. Research also demonstrates that Disabled People who are in employment feel that their career progression opportunities are limited or restricted due to Disabling barriers in their workplace and/or their Employer’s employment policies and practices.   

We provide specialist Disability consultancy services to employers to enable them to identify and remove Disabling or discriminatory barriers in their Recruitment and Employment policies and practices to help them to recruit, develop and retain Disabled employees. This includes:    

  • How to attract Disabled candidates
  • How to make Reasonable Adjustments to recruitment practices to ensure equal opportunity for Disabled candidates
  • How to deal effectively with requests for Reasonable Adjustments from Disabled employees
  • How to ensure that Disabled employees get the workplace support that meets their needs and enables them to deliver optimum work performance including advice and assistance in dealing with applications to the Government’s Access To Work Scheme

We can design and deliver bespoke consultancy services to meet the specific needs and requirements of any business.


Latest News

  • Manchester Lived Experience Leaders
    We are a team of 13 Deaf and disabled people working to change things in Manchester.We started work in April 2023 and we are funded for three years by Manchester City Council.Our co-ordinator is Michelle de Oude.Our aims are to:Work with system leaders to change thingsUndertake peer group work on key barriers experienced by our … Read more

For more information




Impact Review

Read more about the things we do at Breakthrough UK – the differences we make and the positive things we do for disabled people in Greater Manchester. Read More >


Administration Address

Breakthrough’s administration address has changed to:

Registered Office – Breakthrough UK
132-134 Great Ancoats Street,
Lancashire
Manchester
England
M4 6DE


Personal Budgets

If you receive either type of Personal Budget, or employ your own Personal Assistant, we have a range of services to take the stress out of organising your finances. Our services are designed by disabled people, for disabled people.

Go to: https://breakthrough-uk.co.uk/?s=budget


Disability Design Reference Group

We manage the highly successful Disability Design Reference Group (DDRG) on behalf of Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM).

Go to: https://breakthrough-uk.co.uk/disability-design-reference-group/


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