A BLIND police call handler has praised Wiltshire Police for removing barriers to employment for people with disabilities.

The Force has just been awarded the Government’s top accreditation as an organisation with a positive approach to employing disabled people.

It is the first police force in the country to gain the highest Level 3 Disability Confident Leader status in the Department of Work and Pensions’ scheme to remove barriers to employment. Anthony Bristowe, 61, of Bridge Street, Bradford on Avon, is registered blind and works in the Force’s 24 hour Crime and Communications Centre in Devizes, handling 999 and 101 calls. He takes his guide dog Nimmo to work.

He said: “They have been absolutely brilliant. They have been very willing and keen to make the adaptations needed for me to work there.

“I am grateful because I get to feel that I am participating and to feel like I am making a contribution towards the community.”

The Devizes Crime and Communications Centre also employs an individual with a visual impairment and dyslexia.

The Disability Confident Leader accreditation means that as well as actively looking to attract, recruit and retain disabled people, the Force is flexible when assessing candidates.

It puts its self-assessment up for external challenge and can now offer expertise to employers across the county to encourage more organisations to become Disability Confident.

Chief Constable Kier Pritchard said: “I am so proud we are the first police force to become a Disability Confident Leader – it shows our unwavering commitment to ensure we are an organisation which can build on the strengths and talents of all individuals within our communities.

“For us it’s not about special needs, it’s about ordinary, human needs – once you have that mindset it really helps unlock the door to creating a diverse workplace,” he added.

Police and Crime Commissioner Angus Macpherson added: “It’s great to see Wiltshire Police leading the way and the progress being made in making the Force more representative of the community it serves.

“Wiltshire Police was recently recognised as being ‘good’ by HMICFRS for the way it protects vulnerable people. It’s really encouraging to see it is a priority both within our workforce and how we engage with our communities.”

Wiltshire Police’s Diversity & Inclusion team led the work to sign up to the Disability Confident Scheme, achieving all three levels in less than a year by being able to evidence what it has done to provide employment opportunities for disabled people in recent years. The Force takes a proactive approach, focussing on ability rather than disability, to help people achieve their aspirations.

It works closely with Pluss, a social enterprise which supports people with disabilities find work, and the Down’s Syndrome Association’s WorkFit service which has helped three people with Downs Syndrome gain volunteering and paid employment opportunities in the Force.

Nearly 6,000 employers have become Disability Confident nationally, including 33 police forces, but Wiltshire is the first to have achieved the highest level, based on its strong recruitment and retention record which it will now look to share best practice with other employers locally.