‘Offer an interview’ schemes

This resource is part of our Disability Essentials range. You can find the other free resources that are included in this range.

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What is the ‘Offer an interview’ scheme?

The ‘Offer an interview’ scheme is a commitment made by employers to offer interview to all disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for an advertised job.

This forms part of the UK Government’s Disability Confident scheme. Employers participating in the Disability Confident scheme can choose to offer interviews to all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for an advertised job.

This replaced the UK Government’s ‘Guaranteed Interview’ scheme, which ran until 2016.

What is the ‘Disability Confident’ scheme?

The Disability Confident scheme is a UK Government initiative to encourage employers to recruit people with health conditions and disabled people. It also aims to help employers retain their disabled staff encouraging them to work through the structured programme.

The scheme uses the Equality Act 2010 definition of disability. This is:

“…a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on an individual’s ability to do their normal daily activities.”

For support participating in the Disability Confident scheme, including Level 3 accreditation, contact Business Disability Forum’s Advice Service.

How does the ‘Offer an interview’ scheme work?

The key action is to offer an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role.

Job description

The minimum criteria for the role are defined by the employer. It is often referred to on job descriptions as ‘essential’ or ‘desired’ skills.

It is important that the minimum criteria are carefully considered when designing the job description to avoid discrimination and breach of the Equality Act 2010. For example, stating that being able to drive to visit clients is essential may discriminate applicants with sight loss. Without an interview, the applicant cannot show how they can visit clients by means other than driving.

Communicating your ‘Offer an interview’ scheme

• Applicants need to know that the employer is participating in the ‘Offer an interview’ scheme. Applicants must be made aware if the employer is participating, for example by asking as part of the application: “Would you like for your application to be considered under our ‘Offer an interview’ scheme?”
• Make it clear how applicants can apply under the ‘Offer An Interview’ scheme. For example, this may be a form, a tick box on application form, or applicants may need to state it in their covering letter. You should indicate how applicants who may need to apply by other formats can confirm that they wish to be included in the ‘Offer an interview’ scheme.
• Make it clear on job adverts, literature, social media, and websites that you welcome disabled applicants. This should be clear to both internal and external applicants.
• You should not auto-enrol someone in the ‘Offer an interview’ scheme. There are many reasons that they may not want to be included, such as not considering themselves to be disabled.
• Continue to ask all applicants for the role if they need adjustments for any part of the application process. Some people will require adjustments but will not want to be included in the ‘Offer An Interview’ scheme, and vice versa.

Putting the scheme into practice

• Make sure that your recruitment processes will identify those applicants who have identified themselves for the ‘Offer an interview’ scheme. This includes any computer-based sorting technology and assessments you may use.
• Ensure that your staff have received appropriate training on disability, ‘Offer an interview’, and the Disability Confident scheme, if a member.
• If you use external agencies to help with the recruitment process, check that they are aware of the ‘Offer an interview’ scheme and have suitable processes to ensure no applicant is missed. Section 5 of our Recruitment Toolkit, ‘Outsourcing recruitment services,’ has more guidance for organisations that use external agencies in recruitment.

For more advice about disability and recruitment, refer to our Recruitment Toolkit.

Frequently asked questions:

Is it legally binding?

The scheme is voluntary and therefore not legally binding. However, employers that say they are participating in the ‘Offer an interview’ scheme are required to use the scheme consistently in line with their policy.

All employers must make sure that they are not breaching other legal obligations under the Equality Act 2010.

What happens if I have more applicants than I can reasonably interview?

There will be occasions when offering guaranteed interviews will not be practicable.

The official guidance for Disability Confident Level 1 states:

“It is important to note that there may be occasions where it is not practicable or appropriate to interview all disabled people that meet the minimum criteria for the job. For example: in certain recruitment situations such as high number of applications, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people.

“In these circumstances the employer could select the disabled candidates who best meet the minimum criteria for the job rather than all of those that meet the minimum criteria, as they would do for non-disabled applicants.”

Therefore, when you receive more applications from disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria than you can reasonably interview, it is permitted under the Disability Confident scheme not to guarantee interviews.

Can I offer interviews to some disabled applicants but not others?

No. Differentiating between disabilities is discriminatory under the Equality Act 2010 and will likely expose your organisation to successful discrimination claims.

For more information about the law regarding differentiating between different disabilities in recruitment, listen to our Podcast – Positive and proactive recruitment or read our resource FAQs – Positive and proactive recruitment.

Where can I find more information?

You can contact the Business Disability Forum Advice Service for tailored support and advice:

Tel: +44-20-7403-3020

Textphone: +44-20-7403-0040

Email: advice@businessdisabilityforum.org.uk

UK Government Guidance on the Disability Confident Scheme

The Government has produced guidance for employers on completing the different levels of the Disability Confident scheme.

Read next

• Being a disability confident employer
• Attracting disabled applicants