Under the Equality Act 2010, a person has a disability ‘if they have a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day to day activities.’ Disability includes physical and sensory impairments, mental health needs and learning disabilities.
The Equality Act 2010 acknowledges that a disabled person may need to be treated differently, to avoid considerable disadvantage. Taking reasonable steps to avoid this disadvantage is anticipatory, often known as the ‘reasonable adjustments duty’. Both local authorities and schools must adhere to this duty. Failure to make a reasonable adjustment is a form of discrimination.
The reasonable adjustments duty includes the following key elements: adjusting any provision, criterion or practice; plans to make buildings more physically accessible; and provision of auxiliary aids/equipment.
All local authorities have a legal duty to have an accessibility strategy for maintained schools, i.e. schools they retain responsibility for. This is a statutory requirement included in the Equality Act 2010 (under paragraph 1 Schedule 1). Whilst often related to children and young people who have special educational needs, the duty explicitly relates to those who have a disability.
The need for an accessibility strategy does not apply to academies. However, whilst the accessibility strategy requirement only relates to maintained schools, many of the supporting arrangements made by the Local Authority will also benefit disabled children and young people attending academies within the local area.
In addition to local authority responsibilities, all schools, including academies, must have an accessibility plan in place and this should be based on the same principles as a local authority accessibility strategy. As a rule, it is the responsible body for the school that has responsibility for the duties in the Equality Act.
All schools: “must prepare and publish a SEN information report and their arrangements for the admission of disabled children, the steps being taken to prevent disabled children from being treated less favourably than others, the facilities provided to enable access to the school for disabled children and their accessibility plan showing how they plan to improve access progressively over time.”
All maintained schools have been supported to prepare for basic accessibility needs. School governing bodies, in liaison with the local authority, have been delegated the responsibility of ensuring school sites are accessible as specified in Schedule 10 of the Equality Act 2010.
Where possible, children and young people with physical and sensory difficulties are educated at their local mainstream school, with maintained schools adapted as necessary to support their inclusion.
Alongside SEND information report reviews, accessibility plan audits are conducted by the local authority on a yearly basis for all mainstream schools in the local area, to ensure adherence to statutory requirements. Additionally, reviews of a range of specific accessibility features are undertaken for each school.
The local area has several specialist provisions for children and young people with an education, health and care plan (EHCP). This includes special schools and a range of additionally resourced provisions catering for a variety of needs.
Most children with an EHCP can access school or college in a safe manner and do not need any form of travel assistance from the local authority. There are some children and young people, however, for whom some form of travel assistance is necessary. This is available to pupils who are assessed as eligible under the relevant policy and these policies have been developed to take account of the relevant Department for Education guidance.
The Council for Disabled Children (CDC) has published guidance specifically for education settings regarding meeting their responsibilities towards disabled pupils under the Equality Act 2010 including: