Review of the Schools Accessibility Action Plan June 2017

We have reviewed the actions in our School’s Accessibility Strategy and here is an updated action plan

Accessibility Action Plan 2015-2018

1Access to the curriculum

What are we going to do? / When by? / Who is leading on this? / Progress and success
Support schools in making their curriculum accessible for disabled children and young people, including physical education / On-going / Specialist Teaching and Psychology Service / We are now producing information sheets and resources on-line for school staff to access through the SIP for example Dyslexia Classroom strategies, helpful hints for supporting children with mild hearing loss, making information accessible for visually impaired pupils, supporting visually impaired pupils with swimming.
STePS staff support pupils directly and give individual advice and support to school staff for children with hearing impairment, physical impairment and visual impairment.
Create an on-line guide for schools with links to making reasonable adjustments for schools / December 2016 / School Organisation and Provision
Specialist Teaching and Psychology Service / The document ‘Reasonable Adjustments for Disabled Pupils’ Guidance for Schools in England (published by Equality and Human Rights Commission) has been identified as a key document and has been added to the SIP ‘SEND Law and Supporting Documents’ .This contains all the information schools need so an on-line DCC guide is not required
Create a template for transitions from one school to another / March 2016 / Commissioning Team / This has been completed and is being circulated to schools
Design a form for children and parents to complete to self -declare they are disabled people and which highlights reasonable adjustments they may need / May 2016 moved to start in September 2017 / Equality- Organisation and Governance
With support from Corporate Health and Safety / We looked into this further and there is already a form to highlight disabled children’s reasonable adjustments on school systems. So, we are amending the form we already have for disabled employees to complete, with a version designed for disabled parents to highlight what adjustments they may need under the Equality Act 2010 – it will be launched in September 2017 and will be on the equality webpages of the Council’s website

2Improving physical access

What are we going to do? / When by? / Who is leading on this? / Progress and success
Audit all schools for disabled people’s access using a standard access checklist and produce an on-line access guide about schools in Derby / March 2016 / School Organisation and Provision
with support from Corporate Health and Safety / Completed and the document is on the Council’s revised Equality webpages
Support schools in making their premises accessible and inclusive for disabled children, parents, visitors and employees / On-going / School Organisation and Provision / A guide produced to help with advice on reasonable adjustments for schools completed and will be on the Council’s revised Equality webpages
Make reasonable adjustments to school buildings and operations to allow improved access / On-going / Schools where appropriate
School Organisation and Provision

3 Improving accessible information

What are we going to do? / When by? / Who is leading on this? / Progress and success
Support schools in making their information accessible to disabled children and young people by sharing our documents and resources on-line, such as Equality Plan, Interpretation and translation policy, Communication Guide, Deaf and hearing impaired people’s information guide / December 2015 changed to July 2017 / Equality Organisation and Governance / A new Accessible Communications Protocol and new Equality Dignity and Respect Policy have been produced and are going on our revised Equality and Diversity website. The Communication Guide for working with Deaf and hearing impaired people is nearly complete and will be added to our website and included in the Everyday guide to Equality being produced later in 2017
Look into the possibility of schools signing up to a Deaf and hearing impaired people’s Commitment / December 2016 / Equality Organisation and Governance
British Deaf Association / The Deaf and Hearing Impaired People’s Commitment Group will be discussing this at their next meeting in June 2017
Review the Council’s interpretation and translation policy / October 2015 / Equality Organisation and Governance
Interpretation and Translation Task and Finish Group / This has been completed and the new Protocol will be going on our revised Equality website

4Other actions - governance

What are we going to do? / When by? / Who is leading on this? / Progress and success
Brief school governors on their responsibilities under the Equality Act and Public Sector Equality Duty / November 2016 / Equality Organisation and Governance / Primary Head teachers were given a presentation on the Equality Act and School Accessibility Plans in May 2017 and School Governors will be having the same briefing in June 2017– we are also looking at providing some in-house training
Include an Equality Section on the School’s Information Portal for all schools, not just those that use our services / March 2016moved to June 2017 to co-inside with revised new equality pages on website / Equality Organisation and Governance / We have included a section on the School Accessibility Strategy on the Council’s new equality website, so it can be accessed by a wide audience – the new webpages go live in early June 2017
Include the Schools Accessibility Strategy on the Council’s equality pages of the website, as well as part of the Local Offer pages / December 2015 / Equality Organisation and Governance / The Strategy will be part of the revised Equality webpagesin June 2017 – it is already part of the Local Offer pages
Collect information on how many schools have produced an Accessibility Plan and Equality Objectives and report this on the Council website / November 2016 / Corporate Health and Safety and Equality Organisation and Governance / School audits have been reviewed and a new audit programme was prepared. In the newly revised risk assessments, a question is asked if the schools have prepared an Accessibility Plan for access and egress to the school and also access to the curriculum. Due to an underestimation of the work involved, the new programme will start from the new term in September 2017
Produce a newsletter article – Access for disabled children and young people / March 2016 / SENDIASS / Completed
Produce a survey to issue to parents of disabled children to assess how inclusive they find their school to share with the Inclusion Quality Mark Workstream / January 2016 / Parent Carers Forum/SENDIASS / We are looking at this action again to see how this can be implemented
Review the Strategy / October 2017 / School Accessibility Strategy Working Group / We have reviewed this Strategy in June 2017 and will do another update in October 2017