Starters and leavers
Of all appointed new starters, 5.5% declared a disability and 50.0% declared no disability, with 44.5% choosing not to declare any information.
Of those leaving the organisation, 3.9% had declared themselves disabled, and 67.1% not disabled. The number of disabled employees leaving was lower than the overall 4.8% of the workforce with a declared disability.
Applications and appointments
Disabled candidates made up 2.6% of all external applications for jobs at NHS Digital.
At shortlisting stage, over 2.9% of all shortlisted applicants were disabled.
7.3% of applicants did not disclose any disability.
14.3% of applicants identifying themselves as disabled reached shortlisting stage, compared to 12.8% of applicants with no disability being shortlisted.
Job applicants with disabilities (% of total number at each stage)
| Response to question asking about disability |
Applied |
Shortlisted |
Appointed |
| Yes |
2.6% |
2.9% |
5.5% |
| No |
90.1% |
90.8% |
50% |
| Not disclosed |
7.3% |
6.3% |
44.5% |
Note: the percentage of employees who share their diversity monitoring information is much lower for appointed staff, who must complete another declaration, than at application and shortlisting stage. External recruitment was controlled this year as part of the planned organisational change. This means that direct comparison is not possible across all stages of recruitment, or with previous years.
Promotions
5.6% of promoted employees had a disability, slightly higher than the percentage of employees with a disability in the organisation.
Training
During 2018/19, 60% of disabled employees accessed some form of training – online or classroom-based – compared with 55% of those declaring no disability.
Of the 138 employees comprising the three cohorts of NHS Digital Leadership Programme, none had a declared disability, 73% had declared that they were not disabled and 27% had not shared their disability status.
