Reasonable adjustments
The duty to make reasonable adjustments applies only to disabled people.
- when something a setting does places a disabled child at a disadvantage compared to other children and young people then the setting must take reasonable steps to try and avoid that disadvantage
- settings will be expected to provide an auxiliary aid or service for a disabled child when it would be reasonable to do so and if such an aid would alleviate any substantial disadvantage that the child or young person faces in comparison to non-disabled children
The Equality Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has published technical advice to support schools, local authorities and colleges and further education settings on when it would be reasonable to make adjustments which can be found here
Auxiliary aids can include things such as coloured overlays for dyslexic children and young people, pen grips, adapted PE equipment, adapted keyboards and computer software.
Schools and settings are not subject to the requirement of reasonable adjustment duty concerned with making alterations to physical features because this is already considered as part of their planning duties.
An example of reasonable adjustments - an infant school disabled pupil with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) receives some individual teaching assistant support through the SEN framework. He is diagnosed with severe asthma and needs assistance with his nebuliser. Although this is not a special educational need, his asthma is likely to be a disability for the purpose of the act and so a failure to provide a reasonable adjustment will place him at a substantial disadvantage. The school trains his teaching assistant and she provides him with the assistance that he needs. This would be a reasonable adjustment for the school to make.
Many disabled children and young people may receive support in the setting through the SEN framework. In some cases, the substantial disadvantage that they experience may be overcome by support received under the SEN framework and so there will be no obligation under the Act for the setting or local authority to make reasonable adjustments.
For example: A disabled pupil has an EHC plan and attends a maintained mainstream secondary school. Through her EHC plan, she receives two hours a week of specialist teaching and uses an electronic notetaker in lessons. Because the support that she requires is provided through her EHC plan, the school does not therefore have to make reasonable adjustments by providing these auxiliary aids and services for her
Some disabled children and young people are not classified as having SEN, but if they are disabled and are suffering a substantial disadvantage, they may still need reasonable adjustments to be made.
For example: A disabled pupil at an infant school has diabetes, and requires daily support with reading blood sugar levels and insulin injections. He is not classified as having SEN and therefore receives no support through the SEN framework. He is, however, disabled and therefore, if the lack of daily support places him at a substantial disadvantage, the school would be under a duty to make the adjustment of providing the support, if it would be reasonable to do so.
The Equality Act (as specified in Schedule 10 of the Act: Accessibility for disabled pupils) also contains a requirement for local authorities to put in place an accessibility strategy.
