'Reasonable Adjustments' and Occupational Health

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Hello,

I was wondering if anybody had any prior experience or guidance they could offer on a situation I find myself in at the moment.

I am a teacher of very young children and have, in all reality, no problems dealing with the children I teach (I have a diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome) - I find children so much easier to deal with than adults, they tend to be less judgemental in general and they tell you what they want/need/mean without expecting you to somehow know just by looking at them - but I have problems with other aspects of my work, such as interacting with most senior members of staff or outside agency members (I have poor social communication skills with people I don't know well, for example I have very poor eye contact and I tend to stammer); meeting and working with new adults (we now have an executive head over two schools and we're being required to work with the other school staff more regularly, which makes me very anxious); and quite a big problem with lesson observations.

I don't cope well with lesson observations (or just generally being the focus of attention) under the best of circumstances, but we have been told that there would be unannounced lesson observations over the next few weeks and, when I asked for further clarification, was told I couldn't be made aware of when they would be as senior management "needed to get a true picture". I understand this from a purely logical managerial position, but this is actually going to make me ill. I do not deal well with unexpected or unplanned. The head knows of my diagnosis, but it is not common knowledge in school. The deputy (who is a close friend) supports me in general, but they are on leave at the moment.

I know school are required to make reasonable adjustments, but I think they will insist I see Occupational Health, which I didn't want to do as I don't do well with new people (see above). The email response I got from HR also said I 'believed' these were my trigger points, which to me infers they could just turn around and say they aren't in their opinion, which worries me as I don't tell lies and I'm panicked at the idea they might think I am. I have no idea what to expect of an Occupational Health appointment.

As I say, I have no issues in my dealings with the children - in fact it's been commented that I have a natural way with them by many people - but I am paranoid this new head will want to get rid of me because I'm not an easy person to have on their staff. I'm really concerned this is going to make me ill - I have spent large portions of the last three days (since I found about the observations) upset, have been continually anxious and have had two migraines (as well as just a general headache constantly).

If I attend the Occupational Health meeting (which I also think will be incredibly difficult), will I be better covered by the Disability Discrimination Act?

Does anybody have any advice or experience of what happens at an Occupational Health visit?

Thanks in advance for any advice/information anybody has - I can just see me leaving the profession as it stands at the moment, which would make me really sad as I really enjoy working with young children.

It's a good question.

As a teacher, lesson and teaching evaluations are part of the job, both planned and unplanned. Reasonable accommodations become more grey when they border on essential areas of the job.

I don't think you'll be able to get out of observations, because they are essential to job performance evaluation.

My advice would be to think up alternative evaluations that could be used. Maybe they could film you instead of being in the room? I think you need to think up something, I don't think your going to win by saying "I want an accommodation that my supervisors aren't allowed to do observations on my job performance."

Oh no, I know I'll have to be observed - I'm not a brand new entrant to the profession, I've been observed plenty of times before, but always with advance notice. I'm not saying it makes them a piece of cake, just that knowing when to expect it helps with my anxiety. I don't think this is particularly unreasonable - I don't want to get out of them, I just want to know when they are likely to be (knowing at least the day, or at this point even the week, would be something).

Employers tend to refer the question of reasonable adjustments to their occupational health service because managers do not have clinical knowledge of particular disabilities. Objectively, this is perfectly reasonable. As a matter of law, there is no obligation to attend an appointment with your employer's occupational health service and this does not affect your rights under the Equality Act. However, if you are ultimately forced to go to an employment tribunal, it will not look favourably on a refusal to comply with an employer's reasonable procedures.

Occupational health services may either be in house or, more commonly these days, provided by a third party contractor. If the latter, they are acting as agents of the employer and anything that they do is deemed to be done by the employer for the purposes of the Equality Act. However, it is unlikely that anything that an occupational health service provider does would amount to discrimination, e.g. a disagreement over what reasonable adjustment is required would not be discrimination but merely a difference of clinical opinion.

The quality of occupational health services varies considerably. The person that you see may have no more knowledge of autistic disorders than the average GP. On the other hand, some occupational health services may make a referral to a specialist consultant. Employers tend to follow the advice of their occupational health service provider and assume that in doing so that they are "covered". They are not. Ultimately, what is a reasonable adjustment is a question of fact for an employment tribunal.

If you are referred to an occupational health service provider, it is wise to comply. Go armed with what medical records you have, e.g. diagnostic reports (if a referral to occupational health is made, they will usually ask for your permission to access the medical records held by you GP prior to any appointment - again, you don't have to give permission, but it would generally be regarded as uncooperative not to do so). Prior to any appointment, it is wise to prepare a statement of the areas in which you have difficulty and where you are seeking reasonable adjustments (if you are anxious, you can just hand the statement to the doctor and ask him/her to read it - if they have any knowledge of ASD's at all, this should not surprise them in the least). Ideally, the areas in which you have difficulty should refer to the common characteristics of ASD's, e.g. surprise inspections cause you anxiety because they are a disturbance to your routine, cause anxiety and make you underperform and a reasonable adjustment is to let you have notice of inspections. You can take a friend along with you to any appointment, for support, although they probably won't be allowed to accompany you into the actual consultation with the doctor.