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Workplace Adjustment Passports (UK): What They Are, When to Use Them, and How to Do Them Well (2026)


If you change role, get a new manager, or move between sites, agreed adjustments can evaporate. A workplace adjustment passport prevents that. It’s a short, living record of how your condition affects work and what support has been agreed—carried by the employee, recognised by the employer, and reviewed regularly. ACAS explicitly recommends passports as a simple way to record and revisit reasonable adjustments.


What a passport is—and isn’t

A passport is not a diagnosis form or a legal contract. Think of it as a continuity tool: a plain-English summary of needs, adjustments, and review points that follows the person across teams. The Business Disability Forum (BDF), which helped popularise passports in the 1990s, stresses they work best as a framework for conversation, not a substitute for it. Used well, they make support visible; used badly, they become paperwork without practice.


Who uses passports today

You’ll find mature examples across the UK. The NHS Health and Wellbeing Passport lets staff document barriers and agreed adjustments, and bring that record to new line managers. Civil Service and public bodies run similar models and publish templates. Unions, through the TUC, also provide a standard “reasonable adjustments passport” that reps can adopt with employers.



Related government tools

The Department for Work and Pensions offers two employee-held tools that often sit alongside workplace passports: the Health Adjustment Passport (to help people start or stay in work) and, for Armed Forces leavers, a Service Leavers Adjustments Passport. In both cases the individual owns the document and controls who sees it—useful where disclosure and data-sharing are sensitive.


What good looks like (content and cadence)

Keep the passport concise and job-focused: how the condition affects specific tasks, the adjustments in place now, adjustments that might be needed during flare-ups or transitions, and when you’ll review. ACAS guidance highlights exactly these elements and encourages a written record to make changes easier to track. Schedule reviews at sensible triggers—new manager, change in duties, office move—and at least annually. Many NHS trusts advise an annual review; TUC templates suggest a mid-year check (for example, at six months) to confirm the adjustments are still removing barriers.


When passports shine—and when they don’t

Passports are especially useful with fluctuating conditions (where needs change) and at handover points (new manager, new team, new location). They reduce the need to retell personal history and keep adjustments stable while everything else shifts. They are not a gatekeeping tool, and they should never delay everyday, low-cost support; BDF cautions that the passport should aid, not replace, a live conversation about needs.


Privacy and ownership

Treat the passport as employee-owned with controlled sharing. Government guidance on the Service Leavers passport states it cannot be passed on automatically; that principle generalises well: share on a “need to know” basis and keep clinical detail out of line-management files. ACAS similarly frames passports as a record held and updated with the employee, not a static HR archive.


How to implement in one hour (manager’s checklist)

Draft a one-page template (title, impact on tasks, agreed adjustments, escalation/flare-up plan, review date, contacts). Hold a 30-minute conversation to complete it; capture what removes the barrier, not medical history. Store it where the employee can access and carry it forward. Book a review date and agree who else needs sight of it (for example, IT or Facilities). This keeps the focus on practice, not paperwork. (For sector examples and downloadable forms, see NHS Employers, ACAS and TUC resources.)


Common pitfalls (and fixes)

Passports fail when they become a hoop to jump through. If a “Green” (low-cost, reversible) adjustment still requires a completed passport, you’ve created silent gatekeeping; provide support now and update the record after. They also fail when never reviewed; set calendar triggers and tie them to real change (new manager, new kit, new site). Finally, avoid storing clinical detail; record the need and the adjustment and keep health data in the right place.


Bottom line

Used as intended, passports make inclusion portable. They preserve adjustments through change, reduce disclosure burden, and save time for everyone by making support explicit—exactly the kind of mundane reliability that keeps good people thriving at work. 



References (APA-7)

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