Disability - Staff Monitoring Report 2021/22

Disability 2021/22

Proportion % by Disability Declaration in 2021/22

Pie chart showing the proportion of staff who declared a disability, did not declare a disability, or had no disability information recorded. Details in the data table available after this graphic.
Proportion by Disability Declaration (as at 31st July 2022)
Disability declaration%
Yes7.9%
No89.5%
No data2.6%

Most staff reported that they did not have a disability.

Scope: All Staff (please see inclusion/exclusion table) 

Snapshot date: 31stJuly 2022 (Academic Year 2021/22)

Population and Disclosure Rate over 5 years

Bar chart showing the proportion of staff who declared a disability across five academic years. Details in the data table available after this graphic.
Proportion of staff with disability over 5 years
Year% Staff with disability
2017/189.6%
2018/198.1%
2019/207.7%
2020/217.4%
2021/227.9%

Disability declaration shows a slight decreasing trend before rising slightly in the most recent year.

Line chart showing the proportion of staff who declared either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to the disability question across five academic years. Details in the data table available after this graphic.
Disclosure Rate: Proportion of staff declaring ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to Disability Question
Year% Disclosure rate
2018/1999.4%
2018/1998.8%
2019/2099.0%
2020/2199.6%
2021/2297.4%

The disability disclosure rate remained consistently high.

Snapshot date(s): 2017/18 to 2021/22 as at 31st July of each year.

Scope: All Staff – Academic Staff (Central, Regional, Researcher & ALs) and Professional & Support Staff – data does not include OU subsidiaries (OUSA, OUW, Mulberry Bear) or agency/temp workers.

Disability by Employee Group

Two pie charts comparing disability disclosure for Academic Staff and Professional & Support Staff. Details in the data table available after this graphic.
Disability by Employee Group 
DisabilityAcademic StaffProfessional & Support Staff
Yes8.7%6.9%
No86.9%92.8%
Unknown4.3%0.3%

Academic Staff have a higher proportion of staff declaring a disability than Professional & Support Staff.

Snapshot date(s): 2021/22 (as at 31stJuly 2022) 

Scope: All Staff –Academic Staff (Central, Regional, Researcher & ALs) and Professional & Support Staff –data does not includeOU subsidiaries (OUSA, OUW, Mulberry Bear) or agency/temp workers.

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Disability by Employee Subgroup and intersectionality

Horizontal bar chart showing the proportion of staff declaring a disability across six employee subgroups. Details in the data table available after this graphic.
Proportion of staff with disability by employee subgroup
Employee Subgroup% staff with disability
Associate Lecturer 9.2%
Regional Academic Staff8.8% 
Support Staff7.9%
Central Academic Staff6.4% 
Academic Related Staff6.1% 
Research Staff4.1%

Disability declaration varies across employee subgroups, with Associate Lecturers and Regional Academic Staff showing the highest levels of declaration and Research Staff showing the lowest.

Horizontal bar chart showing the proportion of staff who declared a disability across intersectional characteristics. Details in the data table available after this graphic.
Proportion of staff with disability by intersectional characteristics
Intersectional characteristics% staff with disability
Female8.2%
White8.2%
Over 458.0%
45 and under7.7%
Male7.2%
Black, Asian & minoritised ethnicities7.0%

Proportion of staff with disabilities vary slightly by different intersectional characteristics.

Snapshot date(s): 2021/22 (as at 31stJuly 2022) 

Scope: All Staff –Academic Staff (Central, Regional, Researcher & ALs) and Professional & Support Staff –data does not include OU subsidiaries (OUSA, OUW, Mulberry Bear) or agency/temp workers.

Representation at senior level (equity target)

As at 31stJuly 2022, colleagues with one or more declared disabilities represented 4.9% of staff at senior level, a 1.4 percentage point increase from the previous year (2020/21). There is a larger proportion of disabled staff in professor bands (5.7%) than in SS grades (3.8%). We are 2.3% below our 2025 equity target.

Bar chart showing the proportion of senior-level staff who declared a disability over five years. A red horizontal target line is shown at 7.2% in 2021/22. Details in the data table available after this graphic.
Proportion (%) of people with a disability at senior level across 5 years
Year% Disclosure rate
2017/184.0% 
2018/194.2% 
2019/203.2% 
2020/213.5% 
2021/224.9% 

Disability representation at senior level has slightly increased over time, but remained below the 7.2% target in 2021/22.

Bar chart comparing the proportion of disabled staff at senior level across two grade groups. Details in the data table available after this graphic.
Representation of disabled staff at senior level by grade group – 2021/22
Grades% Disclosure rate
PB1-PB35.7%
SS0-SS53.8%

Disabled staff are more highly represented in the PB1–PB3 grade group than in SS0–SS5.

Snapshot date(s): 2017/18 to 2021/22 as at 31stJuly of each year (above chart) | 2021/22 (as at 31stJuly 2022; below chart) 

Scope: Staff with ‘SS’ (Senior Staff) grades or ‘PB’ (Professor) grades

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