Disability Equality Scheme Policy
The Disability Equality Duty of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 2005 places on all public authorities (including schools) a general duty, when carrying out their functions, to:
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RATIONALEThe Disability Equality Duty of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 2005 places on all public authorities (including schools) a general duty, when carrying out their functions, to:
In addition to the general duty, regulations made under Part 5A of the DDA 2005 set out a specific duty on certain public authorities, including all publicly funded schools, requiring them to demonstrate how they are meeting the general duty. Hawkhurst Church of England Primary School has embraced the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act.
DEFINITION OF DISABILITYThe DDA defines a disabled person as someone who has ‘a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities’. The definition includes a wide range of impairments, including hidden impairments such as dyslexia, autism, speech and language impairments, and long-term conditions such as cancer and HIV. 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 in school is related to the following aspects of school life:
Some people are automatically covered by the definition; those with cancer, multiple sclerosis, HIV infection or severe disfigurement. There are special provisions for people with progressive or recurring conditions.
DUTIES OF THE DDADuties under Part 5 of the DDA require the governing body to:
This scheme and the accompanying action plans set out how the governing body will promote equality of opportunity for disabled people. Duties under Part 4 of the DDA require the governing body to plan to increase education for disabled pupils in three ways;
Parts 2, 3 and 4 of the DDA apply to different aspects of the school’s operation, namely employment, the provision of services and to education. The Disability Equality Duty brings together the responsibilities of the school under Parts 2, 3 and 4 and the scheme for Hawkhurst Church of England Primary School shows how the school is meeting its general duty to promote disability equality across all of its areas of responsibility.
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THE PURPOSE AND DIRECTION OF THE SCHEME AT HAWKHURST CEP SCHOOLThe purpose is to show how the school is going to meet its duty to promote disability equality for disabled pupils, staff and parents. In order to do this the school will establish with all staff an overall vision of the duty to promote equality of opportunity for all. The elements of the duties are:
Action by School Leadership Team (SLT) responsible for the Equality Scheme including the Disability Equality Scheme The following actions will be initiated:
The governing body will use the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 definition of disability to respond to the different needs of disabled people.
INVOLVEMENT OF PUPILS, STAFF, PARENTS AND OTHER USERS OF THE SCHOOLThe school will consider and plan to involve pupils, staff, parents and other users of the school in relation to the race, disability and gender equality duty. The school will continue to take into account the preferred means of communication for those with whom they are consulting. The school will ensure the involvement of a range of people and hear a range of views to meet the disability, gender and race equality duties. The views of the pupils, staff, parents, trade unions and other users of the school will be used to set priorities. What activities are covered by the Disability Equality Scheme Every aspect of school life is covered by the duties. Responsible bodies must not discriminate:
ADMISSIONSThe School must not discriminate against a disabled person:
The admissions process at Hawkhurst Church of England Primary School is handled by the LA, therefore the duty to not discriminate lies largely with the local authority.
EDUCATION AND ASSOCIATED SERVICESThe Governors and staff should be aware of the need to make possible reasonable adjustments for disabled pupils, staff and parents.
EXCLUSIONSIt is unlawful to discriminate against a pupil by excluding him or her for a reason related to the pupil’s impairment. This is considered as less than favourable treatment.
INFORMATION GATHERINGThe collection of information is crucial to supporting us in making decisions about what actions would best improve opportunities and outcomes for pupils, staff and parents. The information will also subsequently help us to review our performance. Information will be detailed enough to enable us to measure the delivery on equality duties relating to disability, race and gender, to assess the impact of the changes made and to help the school us identify which of our priorities have been achieved.
INFORMATION TO BE GATHERED
ENCOURAGING DISCLOSUREThe primary reason for knowing who is disabled is to ensure that appropriate adjustments are made. Disabled people are not required to disclose a disability, though it is in their interests to do so if they need reasonable adjustments to be made for them. Disclosure needs to be approached in this light and not just as a consideration to be taken into account in information gathering. Disabled pupils, staff and parents may not feel comfortable disclosing an impairment or health condition unless they know why the information is being requested, and what impact the information gathering is likely to have for them. Some staff do not want others to know about their health condition.
There will also be some people who do not know that their impairment or health condition would meet the definition of disability in the DDA, for example, someone diagnosed with breast cancer may not realise that their impairment is covered by the DDA. To overcome these barriers, schools will need to:
RECRUITMENT, DEVELOPMENT AND RETENTION OF DISABLED EMPLOYEESSchools are specifically required to set out their arrangements for gathering information on the recruitment, development and retention of disabled employees It is important to remember that the duty applies to all those working at the school in whatever capacity and includes those who are working under a contract.
New staff: It is important to remember that nothing requires an applicant to disclose a disability and the school needs to take account of the points made, above, about disclosure. Where the local authority has a role in the recruitment process it is important to liaise with the authority over the collection of information.
Existing staff: Where existing staff are not asked for information on disability, the collection of this information will need to be discussed. As with new staff, the approach that the school takes will need to reflect the points made about encouraging disclosure. It may be that, following discussion, a questionnaire is circulated in confidence to employees, at their home address. Initially such information is likely to be incomplete and imperfect. Disabled staff may fear negative outcomes following disclosure and may fear that the data will not be held anonymously. This does not mean it should not be collected. The very collection of it is likely to lead to better information the next time it is collected. As information on staff improves, it will be important to analyse the information in respect of the representation of disabled staff:
RETAINING STAFFSchools should seek to retain disabled staff who wish to continue working for them. Gathering information on the representation of disabled people within the workforce should involve an analysis of whether the appropriate adjustments are being made and the support provided to enable disabled staff to return to work or continue in service where that is what the disabled member of staff wants to do. “Becoming a disability friendly place to work and having a diverse workforce is likely to be associated with improved retention, more reliable information and can bring wider benefits to the school:
Adapted from Disability Rights Commission (2006)1
EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE TO AND THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF DISABLED PUPILSInformation on disability is gathered through the admissions process. However, a number of factors can affect the response from parents:
Where the local authority has responsibility for admissions it is important to liaise with the authority over the collection of information.
PRESENCE: An analysis of the information might show:
PARTICIPATION: The school might consider whether:
Careful consideration of these issues may indicate some clear priorities for the school’s scheme. Other issues may need to be addressed more immediately by making ‘reasonable adjustments’ to school policies, practices and procedures, for example to the school’s behaviour policy. THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF DISABLED PUPILS:If disabled pupils are in the school and participating in every aspect of the life of the school: how well are they achieving? Schools need to undertake a detailed analysis of outcome data for disabled pupils, including:
IMPACT ASSESSMENTSImpact assessments refers to the review of all current and proposed policies and practices in order to help schools act to ensure no gender, racial group or disabled person is disadvantaged by school activities and to promote race, disability and gender equality. Impact assessments will be an on-going process to ensure that our policies and practices develop, evolve and are incorporated into the school’s planned review and revision of every policy. Every new policy or procedure will be drawn up with regard to our duties to promote race, disability and gender equality and to eliminate discrimination and harassment within the school community. Policies requiring impact assessments will include:
MONITORINGThe school will need to monitor for impairment, disabled people as staff, parents and users of services/facilities. Areas for monitoring will include
IDENTIFYING THE MAIN PRIORITIES FOR THE SCHOOL’S SCHEME AND DECIDING THE ACTIONSThe priorities for the scheme will be set in the light of:
Some of the priorities identified may include:
IMPLEMENTATIONThe Scheme will be supported by individual action plans relating to disability, gender and race equality and be incorporated into the School Improvement Plan, with oversight by the governing body so that progress can be checked. The Action plans will show:
PUBLICATIONThe Equality Scheme will be published as a separate document. The school will provide a copy for anyone asking for it in a range of formats.
REPORTINGThe school will report annually on the progress made on the action plans and its effect on policy and practice within the school.
REVIEWING AND REVISING THE SCHEMEAs part of the review of the Scheme, the school will:
The review of the Scheme will inform its revision; how the school sets new priorities and new action plans for the next scheme. This process will continue to:
DATE OF REVIEW : JAN 2018 |