Improving Access

The SEN and Disability Act (SENDA) 2001 introduced new duties for Local Authorities (LA) and schools in relation to disabled pupils and prospective pupils.

What are the duties imposed by the SENDA?

The main purpose of these duties is to ensure that disabled pupils are not treated less favourably and to ensure that reasonable steps are taken to avoid putting such pupils at a substantial disadvantage.  

Under the act LAs have a specific duty to produce an Access Strategy and schools have a duty to produce an Access Plan every three years starting from 2003.  These are to show how schools and the LA plan to improve access in the following three areas:

• increasing the extent to which disabled pupils can participate in the school's curriculum
• improving the physical environment
• improving the delivery of information to disabled pupils

Once the strategy and plans have been produced, the LA and the school have a duty to implement them and to allocate adequate resources to facilitate this.  As part of their inspections, Ofsted will check that strategies and plans are in place and are being implemented.

For further information on Access Plans please see School's Access Plan.

What steps have been taken to improve the access to schools?

In Spring 2003 the LA arranged and funded a detailed DDA survey for each school and since then has commissioned a short update survey which was carried out in Autumn 2006.  The main purpose being to identify areas of weakness which the school and the LA could work on improving.

Through the Children's Services Capital Programme the LA already plays a vital role in making schools more accessible.  All new buildings must comply with building regulations and current British standards, which means that they should be physically accessible to all pupils.

The Schools Access Initiative (SAI) provides a limited amount of capital funding to improve access in Torbay schools.  This funding is being targeted at implementing two of the activities identified in the LA’s current Access Strategy:

1. Improving Access in Schools Capital Programme - the aim is to improve access in all primary and secondary schools.
2. Individual Adaptations Process - the aim is for a more effective process for managing and implementing adaptations for pupils with disabilities in mainstream schools.

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