The Coastguard Agency has been named the most disability-friendly employer in the UK.
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency was presented with the Leading the Way award for best practice in employing disabled people by Kate Nash, the chief executive of the Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation.
The agency, which employs more than 1,200 staff, received the award for making significant moves to encourage diversity at its Southampton headquarters. This site employs more than 380 people, 10 per cent of whom are disabled.
The awards are run by Remploy, the UK’s leading supplier of employment opportunities for disabled people.
Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance
Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday
Remploy executive director Stuart Knowles, said: “There has been much talk in recent weeks of the extra demands being made on organisations by the extension of the Disability Discrimination Act.”
But he added that the award winners showed how enlightened employers could enhance their organisations and reap business benefit by employing disabled people, instead of worrying about the new legislation.
