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Investing in Level 4 Dyslexia Assessors – Are You Ready for the Demand?

Creased Puddle offer workplace needs assessments

Blog post by Graham Gregory, Neurodiversity Workplace Needs Assessor and Trainer.

A few years ago, the company I worked for secured the funding to train a team to be L4 Workplace Needs Assessors (WNA) for Dyslexia. This, at the time, was forward thinking, well intentioned and all the trained staff were enthusiastic. This was in addition to their full-time roles, and we were warned by the training provider to expect a surge in requests. 

The idea was that all those who thought that they might be dyslexic could access this service, get support and reasonable adjustments applied. This course created 12 trained staff to support over 13,000 employees. 

Within a short space of time, it was decided to focus on all new employees during an ongoing recruitment drive.  All new employees were screened to see if there were signs of Dyslexia. Those who did show signs had a workplace needs assessment completed.  Typically, an assessor was expected to complete 8-10 assessments a year alongside their full-time role. An assessment typically took a day or two to complete, including writing up the formal report.  

Very quickly it became obvious that just assessing the workplace for Dyslexia was not going to meet demand.  More often than not, myself and my colleagues, would hear about co-occurrences such as ADHD or menopause and although we did our best, we didn’t feel confident to provide such advice.  Although vital to the overall picture of reasonable adjustments, these conditions were outside the scope of the training and any training we did, was self-researched and taught.   

Referrals poured in for our services, the waiting list quickly grew and greatly outpaced the availability of the assessors.  As a result, some assessors quit, unable to deal with the overwhelming and ever-expanding backlog.  Other team members took more referrals on, the organisation invested in training further assessors, but we just couldn’t get to the end of the list. 

Some assessments would circumnavigate the waiting list due to various criteria like unsatisfactory performance, poor attendance levels or medical requests. This contributed to even more of a backlog. We wanted to help and loved what we were doing but with 20% of the workforce who either were or suspected that they were neurodivergent (approx 2700 people) getting to the bottom of that waiting list was simply an unachievable goal, never mind building in reviews or quality assurance. 

When I left the organisation there were still hundreds of people waiting for support.    

If every assessor available completed 1 per month, it would have taken 10 years to clear the backlog.   

Neurodiversity is so much more than Dyslexia.  It is about understanding the whole person and if we are going to provide support – let’s really do it.  Let’s invest capital in truly educating our staff, ring fencing their time and providing ongoing CPD as our knowledge and understanding grows. 

Through my work in my current role at Creased Puddle I am acutely aware of how desperate internally trained L4 Assessing staff are feeling and we are doing all we can to support them.  Whilst many do an amazing job it is coming at a price that was never factored into the original business plan. 

Some organisations, in an attempt to solve one problem, have created another and I worry that decisions are being made to provide a quick fix rather than embed sustainable solution.

Creased Puddle provide workplace needs assessments which can help reduce the strain on your organisation. Get in touch with us to see how we can assist with supporting your staff.