DISCLOSURE AND REFERENCES

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Hello Lorraine

I’m sorry to hear that your current employer has not been very supportive at work. Please read the following information which I hope will prove useful. My name is Stacey, and I am a Work Support adviser in our team at Macmillan.

As you are aware,  there is no requirement to divulge information about your cancer diagnosis or treatment at any stage of the recruitment process, however, it can be an advantage to do so if the employer has a positive policy towards employing people with a disability. Sometimes an employer may offer an applicant a job interview if they say they are disabled and match the criteria expressed in the job profile. The job advert may include the ‘disability confident’  symbol which shows that the employer is committed to employing disabled people and an interview would be guaranteed if the basic conditions for the job are met.

If an employer has no knowledge of an applicant having a disability, then the applicant would not have the protection of the Equality Act 2010 (DDA Act 1995 in Northern Ireland) .  

Here is some information below about this:

https://www.gov.uk/looking-for-work-if-disabled

Work and Cancer booklet

An employer should only ask questions about your health before offering you a job for the following reasons:

• They are taking positive action in that they wish to avoid any discrimination during the recruitment process.
• They need to establish as to whether the applicant can carry out the essential job duties of the role.

Job application/CV

There is no requirement for an applicant to declare that they have previously been unable to work due to having cancer treatment. If an employer spots a gap, the applicant can say ‘I have been off work for treatment but am now recovered and able to return to work’. There are many ways to phrase your CV so that it concentrates on your abilities rather than focusing on timeframes – a functional CV would do just that. Here is a link that expl9ans more about types of CVs:

https://help.open.ac.uk/how-to-write-a-cv-curriculum-vitae/choose-right-type-of-cv

References

Any reference from your employer,  should not be in anyway biased and many employers only supply the start and finish times in employment.  They might comment on your ability to do your job duties. They may note absences from work but should not specifically say that they are due to sickness. If this was the case, the new employer might question the reason for the absence. Employers sometimes ask for references after they offer an applicant an interview and sometimes after they have offered the applicant the job and so there would be time for you to explain the absences. For example, in an interview you might say that you have taken time off for medical treatment but now recovered and able to carry out this post. There is often the opportunity to ask an employer not to approach a current employer for a reference unless offered an interview. Many people do ask for this as they simply don’t wish their current employer to know they are applying for other jobs. The ACAS website has further information about this:

https://www.acas.org.uk/providing-a-job-reference

Post recruitment

If an employer does not offer or withdraws the offer of a job, then it must be for reasons that are non-discriminatory.  A withdrawn offer after an applicant has revealed that they have declared that they have a disability could be seen as discriminatory.

I hope that the above information has answered your question, but if you would like to contact us again, please reply to this message. Alternatively, you can talk through your situation directly on the number given below.