New poll of HR, legal and compliance professionals also finds two in five organisations have not updated their whistleblowing policies since sexual harassment reports became protected disclosures in April 2026
Seven in ten UK employers (71%) have failed to train either their managers on disability discrimination or their staff on neurodiversity, according to a new poll of 398 HR, legal and compliance professionals by compliance eLearning provider, VinciWorks.
More than a third (35%) have trained neither group at all. Looking at the two areas separately, around half of employers (50%) have not trained managers on disability discrimination, and more than half (57%) have given staff no training on neurodiversity whatsoever. Managers are usually the ones making real-time decisions on reasonable adjustments, recruitment and sickness absence, so an untrained manager is often the point at which a routine workplace decision turns into a discrimination claim.
The survey also revealed that two in five (43%) have not updated their whistleblowing policies and training since 6 April 2026, when sexual harassment disclosures became protected whistleblowing disclosures in their own right. One in ten (11%) either have no plans to update their policies or have no whistleblowing policy or training at all.
Furthermore, the findings discovered that six in ten professionals (60%) are concerned that a clash between employees’ religious, political or philosophical beliefs could result in a discrimination claim against their organisation.
The findings land as protected characteristic and belief-related tribunal claims climb sharply. According to analysis by Irwin Mitchell, cases linked to neurodivergent conditions such as autism and ADHD nearly doubled between 2020 and 2025, from 265 to 517, a rise of 95%, with a further 19% increase in the most recent year alone.
Tribunals involving protected beliefs rose even faster over the same period, up 380% from six to 29, according to analysis by TWM Solicitors. With religious belief accounting for 31% of cases in the past year and gender-critical or transgender-related beliefs accounting for 24% of recent claims. Court cases including Higgs v Farmor’s School and For Women Scotland v Scottish Ministers have both tested how far employers can go in managing lawful beliefs and single-sex spaces at work.
Nick Henderson-Mayo, head of compliance at VinciWorks, commented, “Seven in ten employers telling us they have not trained managers on disability discrimination or staff on neurodiversity should worry any HR or legal team. Managers are often the front line of requests for reasonable adjustments, and getting these requests wrong can make it far more likely a dispute will end up in front of a tribunal. Plus, disability discrimination already carries the highest average award of any protected characteristic.”
“The Employment Rights Act is about to make all of this considerably more expensive to get wrong,” Henderson-Mayo added. “From January 2027, the qualifying period for ordinary unfair dismissal drops from two years to six months, and the compensation cap disappears entirely. Add in the ‘all reasonable steps’ standard and duty to prevent third party harassment from 30 October 2026, more employees will have more opportunities to bring tribunal claims.”
The findings should prompt every employer to review whether managers, not just policies, are equipped to handle these decisions before the next stage of the Employment Rights Act comes into force.
