How do we write a reasonable adjustments passport?

Start with a one-page, employee-led template

Use a short, employee-led template: the worker records the impact and the adjustments agreed, then you both sign, date and review it. It is a voluntary record, not a replacement for your Equality Act duty. The single most important move is to let the employee complete it in their own words rather than have a manager fill it in for them. A reasonable adjustments passport (sometimes called a workplace adjustments or disability passport) is a living record that travels with the person when their manager or role changes, so the same adjustments do not get renegotiated or lost each time TUC.

The sections every passport needs

Keep it to one page and four plain headings. The official government Health Adjustment Passport uses the same spine, so you do not have to design one from scratch GOV.UK:

• The impact. How the person’s condition affects them at work, in their own words. They choose what to share — there is no requirement to name a diagnosis or give medical detail.
• The barriers. The specific tasks, settings or processes that create difficulty (open-plan noise, last-minute change, dense written instructions).
• The adjustments agreed. What you have both signed up to: flexible hours, extra breaks, written-plus-verbal instructions, specialist equipment, communication support or a job coach.
• The review point. A fixed date and a trigger for revisiting it.

Agree it, sign it, and set a review trigger

The employee drafts the passport with you, not for you to approve. Once you have agreed the adjustments, you both sign and date it so there is a clear record of what was settled and when. Then set the review trigger most templates leave out: revisit it at a fixed interval (Acas suggests roughly every six months) and on any change of manager, role or condition, so it never goes stale Acas. When a new manager takes over, the passport lets them see what was agreed without putting the employee through the whole conversation again.

Keep the duty separate from the document

The passport records your adjustments; it does not create or discharge them. Your legal duty to make reasonable adjustments for a disabled worker comes from the Equality Act 2010, not the form Equality Act 2010, s.20, and failing to make an adjustment a disabled person needs is itself unlawful discrimination s.21. That duty can be triggered by your knowledge that someone is disabled, with or without a diagnosis. So a signed passport is strong evidence you engaged, but a thin or ignored one will not protect you if the underlying adjustments were never actually made.

This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.