Belfast Trust is the largest integrated health and social care Trust in the United Kingdom. They deliver integrated (co-ordinated and personalized) health and social care to around 340,000 citizens in Belfast. They also provide the majority of regional specialist services to all of Northern Ireland. Their five hospitals also make up the major teaching and training hospitals in Northern Ireland.
Why Everway for Work?
Everway for Work's software is user-friendly and helps all staff to work with more confidence, accuracy and efficiency. It’s especially helpful for employees with hidden disabilities, cognitive differences, visual impairments, low literacy, and those with English as a second language.
Belfast Trust is dedicated to safe, effective and compassionate care for not only their community, but their staff as well. They have a workforce of over 20,000 employees (full time and part time). Everway's tools offer them an neuroinclusive and versatile software to support their diverse workers.
Belfast Trust’s Equality Manager, Estella Dorrian, explains:
At Belfast Trust we want all of our staff to succeed and reach their full potential. As part of our People Strategy, we proactively seek ways to improve the support that we can offer. We’ve seen the benefits that Read&Write can offer to those in our industry and beyond. It’s a software proven to make a difference, for all employees."
In 2018, Belfast Trust took the steps to secure software for all employees. This decision followed an initial pilot, where staff across the Trust had the chance to use and review the software. 90% of those surveyed rated the software 'Excellent / Very Good'.
Estella says: “We’re proud to be the first Health and Social Care Trust in Northern Ireland to offer this. It’ll help us to not only support our large workforce, but attract diverse talent too.
“The software is available to all students across Northern Ireland’s main universities, such as Queen’s University Belfast and the Ulster University. That means many of our prospective candidates may be using the software. The need for neuroinclusive technology doesn’t stop when students graduate. By offering this, we can continue to offer graduates the support they’ve been used to as they enter the world of work. It also helps us to demonstrate our commitment to our people.”
At university I was able to access the Read&Write tool but could not do so within the Trust systems. I’m delighted to hear that the Trust has now gained a network wide license for the software."
Software that is beneficial for all
Recognizing the benefits of neuroinclusive technology, Belfast Trust were keen to make sure all employees knew that it was available. As well as sharing how it could help them in their daily reading, writing and research tasks. This includes Doctors, nurses, administrative staff, carers, social workers and new recruits.
“Everway's tools has the potential to support all staff,” explains Estella. “It makes everyday literacy tasks simpler, quicker and more accurate. It helps to improve productivity and time management for all employees, across all divisions of the Trust. It was important to us that all our staff knew of the benefits it could offer.”
This involved making the software readily available, and spreading the word to their large workforce.
As Equality Manager, Estella led this process. Below, she shares how they successfully rolled out the software to their workforce of 20,000.
Belfast Trust wanted to make it easy for all staff to access Read&Write in a non-judgemental and neuroinclusive way. Estella explains:
“We realize that individuals with disabilities don’t always feel confident to disclose their disability. In fact, at Belfast Trust, we know that there is significant under-reporting of disability amongst our staff (2%). By making it readily available to all, every employee can access the software with discretion. It also facilitates timely reasonable adjustments for staff. It removes the need to wait for a referral and recommendation from Occupational Health, which could take up to a year.”
Read&Write has the potential to support many of the employees that my team assesses. The easy and quick availability of the software means that those staff who struggle with reading and writing can access immediate support which can be life changing."
Belfast Trust employees are able to access the software straight from their employee hub. It’s compatibility with all their internal systems means staff across all divisions can access it. This means that staff on-the-go, in roles that don’t involve heavy computer work, can still gain support from its features.
Sharing the benefits
To help all staff understand how this could help them, Belfast Trust made it easy to understand the benefits. Within their employee hub. Since introducing it to their employees, they’ve noticed additional benefits too:
“Read&Write helps us to make reasonable adjustments for our service users, meaning it’s benefits go beyond the workforce. Our staff can use it to produce information in alternative formats for our service users, when required."
Spreading the word
Belfast Trust took action to spread the word about neuroinclusive softwar to their large workforce. This involved:
- Using flyers to promote availability
- Displaying posters across various departments
- Educating staff from the top down
- Providing training and focus groups for staff wanting to learn more
Such activities helped them to take great strides towards a truly inclusive working environment. But what was most crucial to their success was making it part of the induction process. Speaking on this Estella says:
“We realised early on that making the tools part of the induction process was important. In fact, it’s a key part of our success story. New recruits are introduced to the tools at monthly induction events, and within personal induction periods. We’ve been noticing the benefits ever since.
“For example, ICU staff have a 12 week induction period. Our recruits with Dyslexia found that it helped them to remove barriers. It worked as a confidence builder during this crucial learning stage.“
Alongside this, Belfast Trust also make sure that prospective employees know it is available to their workforce. They do this by promoting the software at Health Fairs:
“Sharing Everway's technology at health fairs and monthly inductions gives staff from all walks of life the opportunity to open up and explore how it works. It gives them the opportunity to discover how this support can improve their professional world.”
Employees stories
Today, many of Belfast Trust’s employees use Read&Write. From a Social Worker with ADHD using the software to improve concentration. To a Staff Nurse with dyslexia using the software to help her write reports.
Speaking on the value of Read&Write, one Belfast Trust employee has shared her personal experience with us.
If I had Read&Write when I was a child, I would be a doctor today. That was my dream that I never fulfilled...
Deirdre has a neurodivergent condition called Marfan's Phenotype, and uses the software to help her communicate effectively. In the video below, Deirdre shares how Everway's Read&Write tool supports her today, and why she wishes she had access to the software as a young adult.
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