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Flex Plus report launch

  On 25th March 2025 we launched The 39 Steps: realising the potential of Flex Plus working for disability inclusion , my report with Kim Hoque and Ben Baumberg Geiger. The event was held in parliament, hosted by Deirdre Costigan MP, with speakers Laura Davis (BASE), Emily Hyland (TUI Group) Sally Hemming (EY), and Mo Koheeallee (Coca Cola) and attended by representatives from Disabled People's Organisations, flexible working campaigners, disability inclusion advocates and civil servants. Here is the text of my announce Hello and thank you all for joining us for this discussion. Our report is about the new concept of Flex Plus working – a model of flexible working that’s come out of disabled people’s experiences of managing health and work. I’d like to start by thanking Ben Geiger and Kim Hoque for the incredible opportunity of working with them. On a project that has a direct bearing on my working life as a disabled person, as well coming at a critical time in our national d...
Recent posts

Ways of Working - a life story

I was asked to talk about my 'Ways of Working' recently. It turned out to be a brilliant opportunity to connect up so much of my life and my work.  Working from bed since 1996   I first developed My Ways of Working in the 90s as a student living with ME. To get around my very poor mental and physical stamina I studied part time, mostly from home, often in bed, in short bursts of concentration interspersed with rest. It may have been a strange existence, but it got me a First Class degree from a top University. However, I soon found out that I was utterly unemployable. Pigs would fly before the Ways of Working that made me a high flying student would be accepted by employers in the graduate jobs market in the late 90s. I had no choice but to claim benefits. Then, in the early 2000s the New Deal for Disabled People came along: a specialist voluntary support scheme for disabled people who want to work. “Yay”, I thought (in those days employment support providers were all ...

What are energy-limiting conditions? An introduction to chronic illness at work

What are energy limiting conditions? A guide for employees and their managers is a new resource, produced for Astriid charity. I hope it will be a gamechanger for unlocking conversations about health, disability and work, and lead to more people with chronic illness getting the support they need at work. I've lived with an energy limiting condition (ELC) for decades, but for a long time, I didn’t have the language to describe my needs and ask for adjustments that could have helped me take part in life.  I didn't even know if I was allowed to do so, because I didn't see people like me in representations of disability or in the landscape of disability rights.  The work I did with Chronic Illness Inclusion (CII) taught me that many of us feel the same. The gap between our day-to-day reality and society's understanding of chronic illness as a form of disability is vast. Many people report that this conceptual gap, and the lack of understanding from everyone - from friends...