Reasonable adjustment passport: template and honest limits
Ryan Hoare · Founder, TryMosaic · Last reviewed
This guide is part of our complete guide to managing reasonable adjustments.
The problem a passport solves
The most exhausting part of having adjustments is not getting them agreed. It is having to explain everything again every time something changes: a new manager, a restructure, a secondment. Each retelling costs the employee energy and risks losing adjustments that took months to get right.
A passport fixes the retelling problem. It is a document the employee owns, recording what has been agreed and why it matters, written once and shared forward. When a new manager arrives, the conversation starts from the passport rather than from zero.
What a passport should contain
- About me: a short section in the employee's own words describing the barriers they experience at work. Diagnosis is optional and the employee's choice.
- My agreed adjustments: each adjustment, the barrier it addresses, and the date it was agreed.
- What helps and what makes things worse: practical notes a new manager can act on in week one, such as communication preferences and early warning signs of overload.
- History: previous adjustments that were tried and dropped, and why. This stops new managers reinventing failed experiments.
- Sharing record: who has seen the passport and when, controlled by the employee.
- Review dates: when the passport was last updated and when it will next be looked at.
Rules that make a passport work
- The employee owns it. Managers contribute, but the employee decides what goes in and who sees it.
- It is a living document, updated when adjustments change, not an annual form-filling exercise.
- It travels ahead of the employee. The value is realised when the incoming manager reads it before the first one-to-one.
- It does not replace the employer's own records. The passport is the employee's account; the employer still needs its own audit trail of requests, decisions and reviews.
The honest limits of portability
Within one employer, a passport can carry adjustments across manager and team changes, and that is where it earns its keep. Between employers, the honest position is more modest. A new employer is not bound by the previous employer's agreements: the duty under the Equality Act 2010 is assessed afresh, and what was reasonable in a large organisation may not be reasonable in a small one.
What the passport carries between employers is knowledge, not entitlement. Arriving with a clear account of your barriers, what has worked, and what failed saves months of trial and error, even though each adjustment still has to be agreed again. Present it that way and it sets accurate expectations on both sides.
Passport, plan, or both
An adjustment plan is the employer's operational document: owners, dates and statuses. A passport is the employee's portable one. They overlap and are best generated from the same underlying record, so neither goes stale while the other is updated.
This guide is general guidance, not legal advice. For advice on your specific situation, speak to an employment law specialist or ACAS.
If you are evaluating vendors, book a short TryMosaic demo and put the questions above to us first.
References
- Reasonable adjustments at work (ACAS)
- Equality Act 2010, section 20: duty to make adjustments (legislation.gov.uk)
- Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)
Related guidance
Frequently asked questions
What is a reasonable adjustment passport?
A living document owned by the employee that records their agreed adjustments, the barriers behind them, and what helps day to day. Its purpose is to travel with the employee between managers so support continues without the employee retelling their story each time.
Is an adjustment passport legally binding?
No. It records agreements rather than creating obligations, and a new employer assesses the duty to make adjustments afresh. Its force comes from practice: within an employer, a well-kept passport makes it hard to justify dropping adjustments that are documented as working.
Does a passport transfer to a new employer?
The document can go wherever the employee takes it, but the agreements inside do not bind a new employer. What transfers is knowledge: a clear account of barriers and what has worked, which shortens the new negotiation considerably. Each adjustment still has to be agreed again.
Who should be able to see a passport?
The employee decides. Typically their current manager and the HR staff supporting them, with a sharing record inside the passport showing who has seen it. Health context in a passport is special category data under UK GDPR, so access should be deliberately narrow.
Should the passport include a diagnosis?
Only if the employee wants it there. A passport built around barriers and adjustments works without naming any condition. The decision sits with the employee, not the employer or the template.
Published · Last updated · This guide will next be reviewed by .
TryMosaic is the system of record for workplace adjustments under the Equality Act 2010.