Free Guide: Access to Work 

 

Access to Work: A Practical Guide for Managers & HR

A clear guide to your role when an employee is considering, applying for or receiving Access to Work support.

It covers how Access to Work sits alongside reasonable adjustments, supporting an application, employer involvement, costs and reimbursement, implementing agreed support and reviewing how it works in practice.

Practical Workplace Guides

Our guides are designed for different workplace questions: understanding what is happening, considering a workplace change, or communicating about neurodiversity more accurately.

They provide practical starting points rather than assuming that a diagnosis tells you what the problem is or what will help.

CURRENT WORKPLACE EVIDENCE

32–38%
of neurodivergent employees in the 2026 Neurodiversity Index agreed with key statements about psychological safety, trust in promised adjustments and whether their organisation understood their needs. The Index drew on more than 2,200 responses.
City & Guilds Neurodiversity Index 2026

35%
of workers thought their employer was ineffective at training managers to identify and make adjustments for neurodivergent colleagues.
Acas, 2026 

55 EMPIRICAL STUDIES
were included in a major 2026 workplace review, which also identified continuing gaps in experimental research on workplace interventions.
Choo & Hoo, 2026 

START WITH THE WORK, NOT A CHECKLIST

PERSON · TASK · JOB · TEAM · ENVIRONMENT · ORGANISATION

What is actually happening?
What might be contributing?
What could realistically change?
What would improvement look like?

Identify the barrier → choose a proportionate response → review what happens

Recent job-design research similarly highlights the work itself, the physical environment and workplace relationships as important areas to consider.

Kulkarni, Beatty, Dachner & Lyons, 2026 

WHEN SOMETHING AT WORK IS NOT GOING WELL AND THE CAUSE IS UNCLEAR

Supporting Neurodivergent Employees
A Practical Guide for Managers

Helps managers separate observation from assumption, look at the employee and the wider work system, have useful conversations and decide what kind of response may be appropriate.

It also shows how to review what happens rather than assuming the first explanation or solution was correct.

WHEN A WORKPLACE BARRIER HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED AND A CHANGE NEEDS TO BE CONSIDERED

Reasonable Adjustments
A Practical Guide for Employers and Managers

A practical guide to defining the barrier, considering possible changes, implementing an adjustment and reviewing whether it actually helped.

It also covers employer responsibilities, Access to Work, operational constraints, job design and situations where an individual adjustment may not be the whole answer.

WHEN WORKPLACE LANGUAGE, POLICIES OR TRAINING NEED TO BE CLEARER

Neurodiversity Language Guide
A Practical Guide to Clearer Workplace Communication

Guidance on common neurodiversity terms, individual language preferences and making workplace claims more accurately.

It helps organisations avoid stereotypes, distinguish broad terminology from condition-specific evidence, and avoid treating a diagnosis as a predictor of an employee’s strengths, difficulties or support needs.

The guides complement formal sources such as ACAS by focusing on how workplace situations are investigated, possible responses are considered and outcomes are reviewed in practice.

Each guide costs £30. Selected preview extracts contain genuine pages from each guide so you can see the writing, practical approach and level of detail before deciding whether to purchase.

how our guides are designed

 

• Start with the workplace situation rather than a diagnosis-based checklist
• Consider the person, the work and the wider context
• Use practical questions and worked examples rather than fixed prescriptions
• Include office, frontline, trade, service and operational settings
• Treat workplace changes as things to implement and review, not guaranteed solutions
• Make uncertainty and the limits of the guidance clear where they matter
• Complement HR, occupational health, legal, clinical and other specialist expertise rather than replace it

Purchasing a guide also helps fund ADHD Pirates’ free peer groups and wider community work.