Accessing Access To work
As ADHD qualifies as a mental health condition, you can apply for government support in the form of grants through Access To Work. You don’t even need to be diagnosed. The idea is to help people get into or stay into work.
https://www.gov.uk/access-to-work
This can be up to 62k a YEAR in support (although likely to be less), but can be amazing to access lots of different things to help stay or get into work and be successful, from hardware, office equipment, software, but also, quite crucially coaching.
Coaching is a brilliant tool for ADHD – although again, provision varies and can be an absolute lifeline when it comes to understanding personal specific challenges and developing strategies that work for you. Yes, I am a coach! Because it was that powerful when I worked with my own coaches through Access To Work.
There are no hard rules as to what you can apply for, but this is not meant to be a replacement for things your employer should provide. That said, if you are self-employed, that means you have less support and therefore might be able to access more things. Generally it will be to fund things that are useful to support aspects of your condition that affect your role. Some examples:
Office equipment: making tech work better - a laptop, tablet, extra screen, raiser, separate keyboards, specialist mouse, even the right office chair are all in the realms of things that can make a difference to how well you can do your job. However you will have to justify exactly why you need these specific items.
Software: Often very high on the list of support, you might be offered programmes that can help with note taking, checking for grammatical mistakes, organising your ideas and files, mindmapping etc. In my experience, while this can be useful, it can also be triggering to have to learn a new programme that doesn’t do exactly what you need to do. They will not pay for specialist software like indesign, photoshop or such, which are professional tools of the trade. Worth researching what works for you before you ask for support - for example you might be able to get a business version of otter.ai and chatgpt because it enables you to get notes recorded and summarised easily (make sure you ask for permission to record meetings!).
Training is also often on offer to help you get to grips with all new technology.
Coaching can take many forms too - it might be that you need more practical advice on how to structure your working day, or how to develop your business, or you simply want someone that you can speak weekly to help you shape your ideas and planning and create some accountability. There are as many different coaching options as coaches.
My main advice would be to have an initial coach, ask questions, and take your time before you jump in.
ATW might recommend a supplier for any of the above, but as long as you can justify your choices, you can treat these as recommendations and not as hard musts.
Once you have your grant, you can manage it online, including getting invoices processed. You might have to pay ahead of time and get refunded by ATW, or even pay a small percentage of the fee. If your employer is involved, they can handle the invoices and get refunds from ATW.
Worth noting that you are under NO obligation to disclose your ADHD to your employer or go through them to apply for Access To Work.
In summary, there is a LOT of support available. The admin for this is ironically not exactly ADHD friendly, but it’s worth it to get some significant help.
