WarrenRoadSchool

Disability Equality Scheme

Warren Road is committed to safeguarding all children

December 2010 – December 2013

1School Ethos, Vision and Values

WarrenRoadSchool is committed to ensuring equal treatment of all its employees, pupils and any others involved in the school community, with any form of disability and will ensure that disabled people are not treated less favourably in any procedures, practices and service delivery.

This school will not tolerate harassment of disabled people with any form of impairment and will also consider pupils who are carers of disabled parents.

We will make every effort to make reasonable adjustments to ensure that all people have equal access.

2Definition of ‘Disability’

The Disability Discrimination Act defines a disabled person as someone who has:

‘a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on a person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities”

(DDA 1995 and 2005)

Definition of the terms:

  • ‘physical impairment’ includes sensory impairments;
  • ‘mental impairment’ includes learning difficulties and an impairment resulting from or consisting of a mental illness;
  • ‘substantial’ means ‘more than minor or trivial’; and
  • ‘long-term’ s defined as 12 months or more.

The definition includes a wide range of impairments, including hidden impairments such as dyslexia, autism, speech and language impairments, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. These are all likely to amount to a disability, but only if the effect on the person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities is substantial and long-term, as defined above.

The effect on normal day-to-day activities is on one or more of the following:

  • mobility;
  • manual dexterity;
  • physical co-ordination;
  • continence;
  • ability to lift, carry or otherwise move everyday objects;
  • speech, hearing or eyesight;
  • memory or ability to concentrate, learn or understand;
  • perception of risk of physical danger.

People with cancer, multiple sclerosis, HIV infection or a severe disfigurement are also automatically covered by the definition.

Our school uses the ‘social model’ of disability, as adopted by NottinghamCity.

Our school ‘recognises that disability is not caused by the individuals, but by the physical, environmental and attitudinal barriers which exist in the education system and in society as a whole.’ (SEN in Nottingham-A Guide for Parents and Carers)

3Aims and Objectives

Our aims and objectives are to follow the General Duty laid down in the DDA and actively seek to:

  • promote equality of opportunity between disabled persons and other persons
  • eliminate discrimination that is unlawful under the Act
  • eliminate harassment of disabled persons that is related to their disabilities
  • promote positive attitudes towards disabled persons –This means not representing people in a demeaning way, and it also means not pretending they don’t exist and not representing them anywhere at all.
  • encourage participation by disabled persons in public life -It is also important to respect the wishes of disabled children in an educational setting so that they do not feel pushed into activities they do not wish to take part in.
  • take steps to take account of disabled persons’ disabilities, even where that involves treating disabled persons more favourably than other persons.

(DDA 2005 S.49A)

4The Disability Equality Scheme

The production of this disability equality scheme provides us with a framework for integrating disability equality into all aspects of school life and demonstrates how we are seeking to meet the specific duty i.e. to produce a Disability Equality Scheme for our school.

5Involvement of disabled pupils, staff and parents

This disability scheme has been developed with the involvement of disabled children, parents/carers, governors and staff. We have also consulted locally with external professionals who provide services to this school.

An SEN Audit/review was carried out during the summer term of 2007 which involved questionnaires being sent out to:

  • all parents of pupils on the SEN register
  • all teachers
  • all teaching assistants
  • and all SEN pupils either completed questionnaires or were interviewed according to their age and best method of communicating.

The responses to these questionnaires identified actions for improving and developing our provision for pupils with special educational needs.

The next stage in the autumn term 2007 was to consider how we could improve our access and provision for pupils and people who had a disability but not necessarily a special educational need. We needed to consider how we address the six elements set out in the general duty which are:

  • Promoting equality of opportunity
  • Eliminating discrimination
  • Eliminating harassment
  • Promoting positive attitudes
  • Encouraging participation in public life
  • Taking steps to meet disabled people’s needs, even if this requires more favorable treatment.

All parents, staff and governors were initially sent a letter inviting them to be part of a working party/consultation group offering their views and ideas for developing our disability equality scheme. Those people who wished to be involved were then invited to a meeting to:

  • look at ways in which the school can help its disabled children and employees and ensure that they are not discriminated against.
  • discuss issues that affect disabled people for whom the school provides a service
  • find out what barriers disabled people face and take steps to remove them e.g. through disability access audits
  • look at the impact of existing and proposed policies.
  • monitor and check how well things are done
  • review and revise the scheme and provide feedback on how disabled people’s views have influenced our decisions.

The table below summarisesthe feedback from the two working party/consultation group meetings:

Issues and concerns raised / Responses to be built into action plan
Disabled parking and access for people with physical disabilities. / To discuss with head and Bursar and consider possible improvements
Lack of awareness of some office and teaching staff / Training to be planned to improve awareness and understanding
Improving access and communication for people with sensory impairments / For SMT to consider use of Text Reader, Loop systems etc.
Providing more information on disabilities and support groups. / For Family Worker to action
Amending forms to increase collection of information on disabilities / Amend own school forms and address issue of borough based forms with LEA

6Implementation of the Scheme’s Action Plan

An Action Plan for implementing the scheme was drawn up to address issues raised by the working party relating to:

Removing barriers – physical, curriculum and communication/information

Developing positive attitudes within teaching and learning

Eliminating harassment and bullying

Making reasonable adjustments

Developing a voice for disabled pupils (on school council), review meetings, staff, parent carers

A copy of the plan is available as an appendix to this document.

7Information Gathering

Recruitment, development and retention of staff:

The application forms completed by applicants for both teaching and non-teaching jobs include a section which provides applicants with the opportunity to inform the school of any particular needs relating to any disability they may have. Where applicants and/or existing staff do have disabilities, the school will make reasonable adjustments and take sensible measures to avoid discrimination and enable them to fulfill their post.

Pupils:

Information about pupils disabilities are obtained from their admission forms on entry. Achievements of all pupils, including those with disabilities, are tracked by the class teachers, Headteacher, Subject leaders and SENCO and intervention strategies put in place when necessary. All pupils, including those with special educational needs and disabilities, are given full access to all areas of the curriculum through provision of support assistants or special equipment where necessary. Disabled pupils are encouraged to take part in all school clubs and activities. Their views are obtained through the use of questionnaires, interviews and school council meetings.

Parents and other service users:

Information will be gathered about specific needs and requirements of parents and other service users by revising existing letters and forms sent out to these groups of people. The revisions will be to include a section on disabilities which enables people to make particular needs known to the school. The DES working party will also continue to be a forum for people to express their views and suggest improvements needed.

8Admissions, Transitions, Exclusions

The school will consider all these areas and ensure that disabled pupils are not over represented in our exclusion figures, and are given equal access to admissions and supported through transition stages.

9Reviewing and revising the scheme

The progress of the action plan will be reviewed, evaluated and revised by an annual meeting of the working party although the legal requirement is to do this every three years. Where monitoring shows that people are not accessing our services, or that policies and practices are not working effectively, we will make changes to address this where possible and identify new priorities for the action plan.

10Impact Assessment

During the lifetime of the scheme we will assess the impact of our current policies as each one is due for review and consult with members of the DES working party for advice over any particular issues which arise during the review. Impact assessment should also be incorporated into the process of developing any new policies.

11Publication

The Disability Scheme is published as a hard copy document and on our Website.

12Annual Reporting

The school will report annually on the progress being made to promote equality of opportunity for disabled people through the Governor’s Annual Parents’ meeting. Annual reporting will bring together details of:

  • information gathered during the year
  • how that information was used
  • action points completed during the year and those that are ongoing.

The annual report will help the school show its commitment to promoting equality of opportunity and the progress being made. The annual report will be available in a hard copy and on the school website.

13School Facility Lettings

We need to ensure that all groups to whom we let our premises are aware of our Disability Equality Scheme and are committed to following it. Any issues related to disabilities and lettings will be discussed between the Lettings Client, the Bursar, the Site Superintendent and the Designated Member of staff responsible for the DES. The latter will report back about the matter to the DES Working Party at their next meeting.

14Extended Services

It is a specific requirement that the contractor meets any reasonable adjustments, and for the contractor to gather information on the numbers of disabled children using the service, and their satisfaction/experience of that service. The contractor will be required to provide this information annually, to feed into the school’s Annual Report.

WarrenRoadSchool Disability Equality Scheme published: 3rd December 2007

Review Date: July 2013 (To report back at Governors Annual Meeting in September 2012)

Designated Member of Staff for the DES: Mrs Meckiff

Governors Responsible: Janice English, Mary Barette

Appendix 1 DES Action Plan

1

Reviewed Nov 2011 SM