Reasonable adjustments - Speech therapy and self-help

This page gives possible examples of reasonable adjustments by employers in relation to speech therapy, going on courses to help stammering, or self-help meetings. What is appropriate and reasonable will depend on the circumstances. For background, and examples of reasonable adjustments more generally, see Examples of reasonable adjustments.

Time off

There have been instances where employers gave paid time off for a speech therapy course or other stammering course:

One employee was given paid time off for an intensive course totalling 3 weeks - two weeks followed by a period at work, then a final week.
In another instance ('Time off work for stammering course') paid time off for a stammering course requiring a two day absence was given after instigating the employer's grievance procedure.

"It's fine if you stammer"

After an employee had told her manager how her speech therapy course went, her manager said: "It's very good that you did the course, but you don't have to. It's fine if you stammer." The employee really appreciated this.

It might also be reasonable to allow leave (paid or unpaid) for regular speech therapy sessions. Some also find self-help group meetings very beneficial and time off might be reasonable to attend those, or a British Stammering Association conference or Open Day.

As an alternative to trying to use the DDA, a person who stammers could ask his GP for a note saying he needs time off for 'treatment'. However, letting the employer know it is for stammering may help in having it treated as disability leave (below) rather than general sick leave.

Paying for a course

In some areas of the UK, speech therapy is available free under the NHS, but sometimes it is not, or there may be other reasons to pay for a course (e.g. City Lit, McGuire Programme, Starfish Project, NLP courses) or for a private speech and language therapist.

Some employers have paid for speech therapy courses or other stammering courses:

An example is www.stammering.org/jmann.html. There the employer also paid for a place at the British Stammering Association conference.
In another example, ('Time off work for stammering course') the employer paid half the cost of a stammering course and the union paid the other half.

For information on therapy and courses available, see the BSA website: Adult therapy and courses or call their helpline.

Excessive sick leave? Disability leave?

Staff may be worried about being penalised for taking excessive sick leave for stammering treatment.

I know of an example where an employer classed a speech therapy course (for which the employer paid) as 'personal development'. This took it out of the employer's 'sickness' policy. The employee had identified it as a training need during an exercise to identify training needs for the team. It is possible that a speech therapy course was classifed similarly in www.stammering.org/jmann.html.

Otherwise, one should look at the particular organisation's sickness policy. By way of some general points:

Employers ought to distinguish in their records between disability-related absences and general sickness absence, and some have a specific policy for 'disability leave'.
Treatment for stammering should qualify as disability-related if the stammer is a 'disability'. Where therapy is being sought, the stammer is presumably that much more likely to be a disability, as its effects on normal day-to-day activities will usually be more than 'minor or trivial'.
Whilst even disability-related absences may sometimes have adverse consequences, they are subject to the protections of the DDA and should not necessarily be dealt with in the same way as general sickness absences. In particular, an employer's sickness policies are subject to the DDA's reasonable adjustment duty where disabilities are concerned. Say, for example, that under the policy a dismissal procedure is triggered by a certain amount of absence - it might be a reasonable adjustment for the employer to discount, at least to a certain extent, absence(s) caused by a disability.
(I focus on the reasonable adjustment duty rather than disability-related discrimination, because the latter has been weakened by the House of Lords decision in Lewisham v Malcolm.)
For more, see Section 3.29 Frequently asked questions about absences related to disability (link to archived DRC website).

After course

After a stammering course the employer might ask the person who stammers if there is anything the employer can do to support them.

For example, one person who stammers asked a particular colleague to let her know if she lost eye contact.

DDA and Code of Practice

DDA section 18B(2)(f), which lists examples of possible reasonable adjustments, mentions time off for treatment. Paragraph 5.18 of the Employment Code of Practice gives as an example time off for rehabilitation training if a disability worsens or the person needs occasional treatment anyway.

Employment: Examples of reasonable adjustments

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Reasonable adjustments - Speech therapy and self-help

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Excessive sick leave? Disability leave?

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