The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 introduced a new definition of disability. It defines a disabled person as someone with “a physical or mental impairment, which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.” The Equality Act replaced the Disability Discrimination Acts 1995 and 2005 (DDA) on 1 October 2010. The changes included new provisions on direct discrimination, discrimination arising from disability, harassment and indirect discrimination.
 
Support for disabled employees at Essex County Council is provided by the Disabled Employees' Network Group (DEN), which meets every two months to provide a confidential and friendly forum for employees to share information, discuss and influence council policy, and explore issues that affect them.

 
The network addresses barriers that prevent employees from accessing the same opportunities as non-disabled colleagues. It acts as a consultative group on employment and service issues and makes recommendations for improvements.

The DEN also gathers information useful to disabled employees and produces news updates. The council recognises the importance of this group and allows employees who are not located at a site near to where the meetings are taking place reasonable time off with pay to attend group meetings.

Essex County Council is committed to providing services which meet all customers’ needs and holds planning groups and forums to involve disabled citizens and service users in developing services.  These groups meet every two to three months and have influenced real service improvements. The groups enable ECC to work with a range of external partners to ensure that the services we provide are meeting people's needs effectively.