A disability charity has been ordered to pay a lifelong Crohn’s disease sufferer more than £150,000 after a judge ruled it dismissed him unfairly.
Shared Lives South West in Devon was ordered by an employment judge to compensate William Drysdale-Wood after an unfair dismissal and discrimination ruling in April last year.
Drysdale-Wood was hired by the charity, which supports adults with autism and dementia, as a coordinator in September 2015.
His employment was terminated in September 2023 after two periods of absence.
The first came between November 2022 and January 2023 and was based on medical advice, while Drysdale-Wood attributed the second spell between 28 June and 14 July 2023 to the charity’s failure to make reasonable adjustments.
Shared Lives South West was aware from the start that Drysdale-Wood had a lifelong Crohn’s disease condition with a degree of sickness absence, the court heard last year.
The former charity worker also contracted Covid-19 in January 2022 and was diagnosed with long Covid-19 and chronic fatigue in September that year.
In its termination letter, the charity said that while it had applied “increased tolerance” to Drysdale-Wood’s disability-related absence, his non-attendance had had an unreasonable impact on other staff members.
The charity stated that it felt the requirements of the role could not be fulfilled while mostly working at home, as there was an essential requirement to interact with people in the community, attend meetings and visit households of those supported.
Published last week, the remedy judgment reads: “The claimant’s complaint of unfair dismissal and complaint of discrimination arising from disability (dismissal) was well founded.
“In terms of the claimant’s health condition and prognosis, it was evident that the claimant faced significant challenges.”
Compensation amount reviewed
In April 2025, the original liability judgment upheld Drysdale-Wood’s claims of unfair dismissal, discrimination arising from disability and failure to make reasonable adjustments.
It, however, dismissed all other reasonable adjustment allegations.
A remedy hearing to calculate compensation was subsequently ordered, and on 24 September last year an oral judgment was delivered.
Some £162,000 was initially calculated to be awarded to the claimant by the tribunal, but this was later subject to two rounds of change.
A day later on 25 September, the tribunal discovered that the taxable element had been calculated incorrectly and wrote to the parties proposing a correction.
The tribunal accepted this proposal, so the award increased from about £162,000 to £167,000 on 25 October that year.
Shared South West Lives then raised concerns about how state benefits had been applied.
The tribunal then reviewed the issue as part of a reconsideration application and reduced the award to about £152,745.
Shared South West Lives had an annual income of £8.6m in the year to March 2025, and an expenditure of £8.5m.
Civil Society has approached Shared Lives South West for comment.
The charity told CornwallLive last year that it was disappointed at the unfair dismissal and discrimination ruling.
