Empowered Employers
In 2022, we launched the Empowered Employers campaign to support employers in creating more inclusive and accessible workplaces for disabled people and people with mental health conditions.
The campaign was co-designed in collaboration with Barnwood Circle members (Experts by Lived Experience), ensuring that disabled people shaped the messaging and media content from the start. Seven organisations partnered with us to deliver the campaign publicly, and eight organisations participated in a learning programme facilitated by Evenbreak, exploring inclusive and accessible employment practices.
During 2024, participating organisations were invited to develop action plans to put their learning into practice, helping to drive positive, meaningful change in how disabled employees and employees with mental health conditions are supported at work.
As this was a new area of work for Barnwood, we paused to carefully review our impact. Through this review, we engaged with partners and disabled people across Gloucestershire, and we examined the wider employment landscape. Our joint response with Inclusion Gloucestershire to the Government’s Pathways to Work Green Paper, shaped by input from more than 80 disabled people, highlighted that the changes required in employment are systemic and urgent, far beyond what a campaign of this kind could achieve on its own.
For this reason, the Empowered Employers campaign has now closed in its current form.
Employment remains a key priority for Barnwood Trust, and the learning from this campaign continues to inform our work. We are now focusing on influencing policy and encouraging investment in inclusive employment practices and we will continue working with partners and funded organisations to support change.
Resources from the Empowered Employers Campaign
Although the campaign has concluded, several resources developed during the project remain available to support organisations and individuals interested in inclusive employment, these are linked below:
Guidance on employing disabled people and people with health conditions
Empowered Employers Podcast – Episode One
Empowered Employers Podcast – Episode Two
Empowered Employers Podcast – Episode Three
These resources are free to access and continue to inform Barnwood Trust’s wider influencing work.
Watch our film to find out more about the Empowered Employers campaign, why it started and what it achieved.