Disability, Livelihood and Employment

The theme for this year's Disability History Month is 'Disability, Livelihood and Employment'. 

The latest Government data demonstrates that there is still much to do to ensure there are equal employment opportunities for the one in four working age adults who are disabled. 

Over the last decade, with the exception of the worst of the Covid pandemic years, there has been a positive trend in disability employment, with growth in the number and rate of disabled people gaining employment.

However, even with this positive trend, the disability employment rate remains low at 53%, compared with almost 82% for non-disabled people.

Disabled people who are working are more likely to be 'underemployed' including working fewer hours than they would want and/or in a job with fewer opportunities.

When it comes to disabled clinical psychologists, the latest Health and Care Professions Council diversity report (HCPC, 2023) indicates that only 6% of Clinical Psychologists consider themselves to have a disability. 

Although there has been limited research into the reasons why disabled people are less likely to become psychologists, the Nuffield Trust (2021) found that disabled undergraduate students were more likely to drop out of their psychology course, and those who graduated were more likely than non-disabled peers to have a 'not known or not applicable' destination six months post-graduation. 

Last year, the Clearing House equal opportunities data showed that 16.5% of applicants considered themselves to have a disability, with a slightly higher than average applicant to acceptance rate at 27.5%.  

There remains a limited amount of published research on the experiences of aspiring, trainee and qualified clinical psychologists including what the barriers are and what helps disabled psychologists to thrive within the profession. 

We are grateful to two clinical psychologists, Dr Esther Cole and Dr Clair Pollard who have shared their experiences of working with a disability. 

In February of this year, this article in The Psychologist, from DCP EDI committee member Dr Esther Cole, demonstrated the challenges of being of a consultant clinical psychologist and mum of three living with long-term health conditions.

Dr Cole highlights the steps she had to take, including becoming self-employed and setting up a diverse and inclusive practice, to make this work. 

Dr Clair Pollard is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist within the NHS, and in this podcast from August 2022, she speaks about working as a psychologist as a wheelchair user including challenging attitudes and the need to be assertive to overcome practical obstacles as well as the positives of being a disabled psychologist, including for her clients. 

The DCP EDI committee acknowledges that more action is needed to inspire disabled individuals to consider clinical psychology as a profession, to overcome the many barriers that can be in place at every stage of the journey towards qualifying and to remove the challenges that often remain once an individual has qualified.

We encourage researchers to help enhance our understanding of the experiences of disabled psychological practitioners and ask training institutions and employers to do all they can to ensure reasonable adjustments and positive attitudes are in place so disabled trainees and psychologists can thrive within our profession.