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...
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 ...