Our newest hires
We’re proud to present our Disability Confident Panel - a group of 13 people who we’ve brought into the Jamescape team to assist us with delivering our Disability Confident consulting offer. We received over 60 applications for this role, which is the highest we’ve ever had for a role at Jamescape, and after around 40 interviews, we’re confident that we have a talented, knowledgable, and affluent panel. What’s more, the majority of Panel Members are young, early-careers people who are taking their first role in Equality, Diversity & Inclusion. We’re proud to continue offering meaningful employment opportunities for young people, particularly in a field which has a lack of early-career opportunities.
The role of the panel
As part of Disability Confident Leader accreditation (the top level of the scheme), organisations are required to be validated by a suitably qualified group to fulfil the Challenge aspect of the scheme. We support clients to meet this requirement by hosting focus group style sessions with our Disability Confident Panel members, who we’ve trained to provide constructive feedback on organisational disability inclusion practices. It’s not a pass/fail test, but rather an open and honest discussion around evaluating HR practices for the recruitment and management of disabled staff. The session gives organisations the confidence that they are doing the right things for their team along with an understanding of how they can further improve their inclusive practices.
Hear from some of our Panel Members below:
It is inspiring to work with Jamescape as the disability panels show a genuine commitment to listening to lived experience and making workplaces more accessible and ethical, which is better for everyone.
Holly Howarth, Panel Member
As a CEO of a disability charity, I know how vital inclusion and equity are. I’m excited to be a panel member for Jamescape because the disabled young people I support are the workforce of tomorrow. My hope is that they enter employment with employers who ensure they have everything they need to successfully showcase their skills and talents. This isn’t rocket science - it’s simply about being a decent human.
Claire Caddick, Panel Member
Inclusion is something that I’m very passionate about both on a personal and professional level. Having the opportunity to be a member on this panel provides me with an opportunity to help make sure other companies and organisation are being as inclusive as possible for everyone involved.
Lily Grieves, Panel Member
The value of lived experience
Our Disability Confident Panel has a range of lived experience of disability, including physical, developmental, and neurological conditions. It should be common sense, but when we design practices for certain groups of people, it’s important that they’re in the room, giving their input and offering feedback. No two people with the same disability will have the exact same life experiences, so a large variety of opinions is also important. If we want to be truly inclusive, it’s absolutely critical that we value lived experience and listen to the people that our decisions would impact.
Even if your organisation doesn’t currently employ any disabled talent, our Disability Confident Panel addresses that gap on your behalf and means that you get that meaningful lived experience input.
We’re a disabled-led company, and we’re proud of our award-winning inclusive practices, but there’s always more to learn and improve on. By listening to people with different disabilities and different life experiences, we often pick up on improvements we ourselves can make. For example, in the interviews for this role, one applicant mentioned that they struggled with online application forms and would appreciate the option of applying over the phone, which is something we’d never considered but would be happy to accommodate. We now explicitly state this option on our job listings going forward for the benefit of future applicants.
Ready to get involved?
If you’d like to work with us and our Disability Confident Panel to enhance your organisation’s disability inclusion, find out more about our services and get in touch for an initial chat.
Take advantage of our New Years sale and get 10% off all our Disability Confident services until January 31st 2026!