A wellbeing passport is a voluntary written record of the workplace adjustments an employee and their manager have agreed, so support carries over when their line manager changes. It is not itself a legal requirement. You may also see it called a reasonable adjustments passport, a health adjustment passport, or a workplace adjustments passport.
What a wellbeing passport records
The passport is completed by the employee and their line manager together and signed by both. It typically sets out how a condition affects the person at work, the adjustments already agreed, and any the employee thinks they may need in future. Acas suggests reviewing the record regularly with the manager, for example every six months or whenever something changes.
It can cover a range of circumstances:
- a disability or long-term health condition;
- neurodivergence, such as autism, ADHD or dyslexia;
- menopause symptoms;
- caring or childcare responsibilities outside work.
It records a legal duty — it does not create one
This is the part the top results tend to bury. A wellbeing passport has no statutory force of its own. It documents the reasonable adjustments you are already legally obliged to make under the Equality Act 2010. That duty applies to an employer in its own right (section 39(5)) and is triggered where a disabled person is put at a substantial disadvantage, whether or not anyone has filled in a form. The passport does not change the duty; it makes the agreed adjustments portable, so when a manager or role changes the employee does not have to disclose or re-negotiate everything from scratch.
One caveat for carers
A passport can record caring or childcare commitments, which matters for a parent looking after a child with SEND. Be clear on the legal footing, though: the reasonable-adjustments duty applies to the employee’s own disability, not to caring by association (the Court of Appeal confirmed this in 2014). Recording a carer’s needs is good practice and may engage other rights — for example the day-one right to a week’s unpaid carer’s leave, in force since 6 April 2024 — rather than the duty to make adjustments.
It also sits alongside the Health Adjustment Passport, a self-completed document from the Department for Work and Pensions that can support an Access to Work application for things like specialist equipment, travel-to-work support or a job coach.
Where the law comes from
Related
This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.