Hello,
For some background to my case: I am based in England & Wales and work for the Civil Service. I joined a training programme that requires me to sit exams regularly. When I joined, I already had a Workplace Adjustment Passport from my previous Civil Service role, and I also underwent an Occupational Health assessment shortly afterwards. Both confirmed that I should receive 25% extra time in exams, among other adjustments.
For over a year, I sat and passed all required exams with the agreed extra time in place. However, late last year I sat an exam where the extra time was not provided, and I subsequently failed. As a result, I was removed from the programme. Upon questioning why I wasn't given extra time, my manager confirmed that he had forgot to submit the documents I had sent him to make my adjustments permanent.
After speaking with Citizens Advice, I initiated early conciliation through ACAS. Conciliation was declined, so I submitted an ET1 claim and am currently awaiting a response.
During this period, I also submitted a Subject Access Request to obtain information relating to me and my disability. Below is an excerpt from one of the emails (names removed):
[name],
We briefly discussed [me] this morning when we chatted and you said that you would be having a meeting with [boss] about this but it was unlikely to change the outcome. I just have some concerns about the comments made by [me] below.
I recognised that this was incorrect, as sending it to my boss was one of the first things I did upon joining the course. It turns out that while I did send it to [boss], he had forgotten to submit it. I rectified this as soon as possible, but due to time delays my extra time was not implemented by the exam. I believe this directly impacted my performance as I performed significantly better on the first half of the exam before I struggled for time.
I appreciate that when [me] realised the extra time hadn’t been given, they should have halted the exam and by continuing with it was there decision and the guidance makes it clear that they can’t appeal the outcome.
However, we have had situation before with trainees when they have sat exams that they shouldn’t have, and the results were set aside as they were deemed “not to be able to make that decision”.
I am just conscious that this will result in [me] being removed form the course. If they did try to take us to tribunal (I don’t think they would) how would this look when we didn’t implement a reasonable adjustment because the manager forgot to submit it.
At the end of the day, it’s a decision for you and the managers but just wanted to share my thoughts with you. Kind regards.
I feel this email may be relevant to my case. Has anyone had similar experiences? Were you able to submit additional evidence like this after filing an ET1?