Why delivering Neurodiversity training matters to me

 

Part and parcel of working in Neurodiversity support is the fact that sometimes, you’re going to come across some pretty upsetting statistics. Sometimes they’re shocking – like hearing that adults with ADHD are up to 5x more likely to be at risk of suicide. 

 

Sometimes though, they tell what feels like a depressingly familiar story. A story that will absolutely feel close to home for anyone who’s disclosed a neurodivergent diagnosis in the workplace. 

 

Analysis from Irwin Mitchell LLP found that between 2020 and 2025 there was an astonishing 750% increase in employment tribunals mentioning ADHD.  They also found that autism cases nearly doubled (96.3% increase), Dyslexia was up by 78.4% and Dyspraxia up by 175%.  A follow up study from February this year (2026) confirmed that rather than leveling out, the trend is accelerating.  

 

So what does that mean?  Well, it means that more employers are getting things wrong. 

 

Just focussing on ADHD, we know that whatever the media might tell you, ADHD is not being over-diagnosed.  A 2025 study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry analysed 9 million GP records and found only that 0.32% had a diagnosis of ADHD – 1 in 9 of the likely true number of people with ADHD based on population-based surveys.

 

But we also know that people’s awareness of ADHD is much higher now than at any point in history.  We’ve moved beyond the image of the ‘naughty boy who can’t sit still’ and now, thanks to this improved awareness, the rates at which women are gaining an ADHD diagnosis are increasing – up from 0.2% of the population in 2016/7 to 0.9%in 2024/5.  However, despite this rise in awareness, the data shows that people from minority ethnic communities in the UK are significantly under diagnosed.  

 

The facts point to more people gaining a diagnosis.  The facts also point out that there is a significantly under-diagnosed population in the UK.  

 

And now, with changes to the Employment Rights Act kicking in from January 2027, employee protection from unfair dismissal starts at 6 months.  

 

Put these two things together: the surge in awareness of neurodivergence and the vast uptick in the number of people seeking a formal diagnosis + the number of employers getting things wrong… You see where I’m going here: the potential for harm increases exponentially. 

 

I have lived through the ‘harm’.  I would not recommend it. 

 

Part of what drives me to improve the outcomes and working conditions for Neurodivergents in the workplace, is my own lived experience.  The lived experience of nearly 20 years in the workplace without a diagnosis. 

 

The Equality Act (2010) offers protection for neurodivergent employees when their condition has ‘a substantial and long term adverse effect on normal day to day activities’.  

 

It is also clear that no disclosure does not equal no protection. Employers have an ‘anticipatory duty’ meaning if they are ‘reasonably expected to have known’ that a member of staff was neurodivergent, struggling and then didn’t offer any adjustments, they could be found liable. 

 

Times are changing. But a lot of employers are seemingly unaware of their responsibilities.  

 

This is personal to me – I want to give leaders, managers and teams the best possible neurodiversity training, nuanced from someone with the lived experience that makes it real.  Because doing nothing is not an option.

 

What You Can Do About It

 

If you’re neurodivergent, diagnosed or not:

Know your position under the Equality Act before you need it, not after. Protection isn’t dependent on a diagnosis or a disclosure conversation. If your employer could reasonably have known you were struggling, the anticipatory duty already applies to them, whether or not you’ve said the words out loud.

If you’re considering disclosing, or already have and nothing’s changed, you’re not asking for a favour. You’re asking your employer to meet a legal responsibility. A conversation about reasonable adjustments should be triggered as soon as you make that disclosure.

If you’re an employer, manager or HR lead:

The 750% rise in tribunal cases citing ADHD is not a warning about the future. It’s a description of what’s already happening, and it’s accelerating. Waiting to see if this settles down is not a smart play, as the data says it won’t.

Start from the assumption that neurodivergent people are already on your team, diagnosed or not, disclosed or not. Under-diagnosis doesn’t mean under-representation, it means invisibility.

Understand your anticipatory duty properly. “Nobody told us” is a weaker legal position than most employers assume, and a much weaker human one.

And if you don’t know where to start: that’s the starting point I built my Neurodiversity training around. Not a compliance box-tick, but something built from the inside of this experience, for the people who genuinely want to get it right and don’t yet know how. I’ve trained a lot of companies. I’ve never met one that didn’t want to do right by its people. What’s usually missing is the knowledge, not the will.

Get in touch if you want that gap closed properly, before the numbers above include your business too.