Teachernet, Guidance on Disability Equality in Schools

Guidance on Disability Equality in Schools

Promoting Disability Equality in Schools

The new guidance materials explain how the Disability Equality Duty (DED) can be implemented by schools.

The Disability Equality Duty does not bring in new rights for disabled people, but it does require schools to take a more proactive approach to promoting disability equality and eliminating discrimination.

This guidance helps schools address pre-existing duties to bring greater benefits to disabled pupils, staff, parents and others by considering disability equality from the start and at every level of the school. The duty requires schools to take a more pro-active, explicit and comprehensive approach that involves not only disabled pupils, but disabled staff, parents and other users of the school.

The materials are designed to be used by school staff, governors and those working with them. The materials can help schools to:

Understand their duties under the different Parts of the DDA (Disability and Discrimination Act)
Raise awareness of the Disability Equality Duty (DED)
Develop their scheme through a staged approach
Develop their accessibility plan to meet the requirements of a scheme
Provide training and development activities on the Disability Equality Duty

The material includes two versions of an outline for a disability equality scheme: the first is an annotated version which can form a framework for a school scheme, the second provides a more detailed description to help inform the development of a scheme.

A third section includes a checklist on the Duty, information on two employment related schemes and brief summaries of the main provisions of the DDA as it applies to schools.

The general Duty applies to schools from 4 December 2006. Secondary schools in England should have published their disability equality schemes by 4 December 2006 and primary schools have until 3 December 2007.

A hard copy of the Disability Equality Duty is available from our publications centre. (All schools that ordered the Implementing the Disability and Discrimination Act in Schools and Early Years resource will be sent a copy of the DED guidance automatically. Subsequently, anyone who orders the DDA resource will receive this new DED section with it).