Excluded:
How Scotland’s schools are failing to plan
for disabled pupils’ needs
The Facts
 Schools are not
legally bound to
adapt their buildings
to suit disabled
pupils
 Local authorities
and schools must,
however, devise
‘accessibility
strategies’
 These must address
access to the
curriculum, physical
access and barriers
to communication
 Only 13 out of 61
local authorities and
schools surveyed
by SDEF could
provide a current
accessibility
strategy
 Only 2 of the 13
accessibility
strategies we
reviewed could be
classed as good
April 2014
Many will be surprised to learn that,
whilst a bank must alter a branch to
suit a disabled employee or customer,
a school does not have to adapt their
building for a disabled pupil.
This little known legal anomaly exists because the
Equality Act, and the Disability Discrimination Act
before it, excludes schools from the duty to make
reasonable adaptations to premises.
Instead, local authorities, independent and grant-aided
schools are required under Scottish education law to
implement ‘accessibility strategies’. These must cover
how disabled pupils will access the curriculum and the
physical environment of a school, and how disabled
pupils’ communication needs will be addressed.
SDEF was keen to understand how well accessibility
strategies in both the public and private education
sectors addressed the problems faced by disabled
pupils. The results of our research were shocking.
A web search found only 3 current accessibility
strategies from amongst the 32 local authorities. A
subsequent Freedom of Information request delivered
only 6 more current strategies. Of the total of 9 we
reviewed, only 2 could be classed as good.
There were similarly poor results for independent and
grant-aided schools. Web searches and email
requests delivered only 4 strategies from 28 schools,
none of which could be classed as good.
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Contents
1. The law
2. Our research
3. The results
4. Conclusions
5. Recommendations
1. The law
Most service providers and employers are under
a legal duty to take steps to remove, reduce or
prevent the obstacles a disabled person may
face. This duty arises from the Equality Act 2010
and was a central part of the Disability
Discrimination Act 1995, as amended, that
preceded it.
This ‘reasonable adjustment’ duty places a
requirement on service providers and employers
to consider and address, in relation to disabled
people:
 provisions, criteria and practices
 auxiliary aids and services
 physical features
However, as the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s publication ‘What
equality law means for you as an education provider' explains, ‘The physical
features element does not apply to schools in relation to disabled pupils.
Instead, they have a duty to plan better access for disabled pupils generally,
including in relation to the physical environment of the school.’
In Scotland, the planning duties are included in the Education (Disability
Strategies and Pupils’ Educational Records) (Scotland) Act 2002 (‘the Act’). It
requires local authorities, grant-aided schools and independent schools to
produce an accessibility strategy. Regulations require that each strategy should
last three years.
The accessibility strategy must cover the three planning duties, which identify
how the school or local authority will:
 increase the extent to which disabled pupils can participate in the
curriculum
 improve the physical environment of the school
 improve communication with disabled pupils, and disabled children that
may become pupils
Schools and local authorities must consult with disabled pupils and their parents
in creating the strategy and must take into account the written guidance
provided by the Scottish Government on this Act. The first guidance was issued
in 2002. In December 2013 the Scottish Government launched a consultation
on revised and updated guidance called ‘Planning improvements for disabled
pupils’ access to education’.
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2. Our research
SDEF was keen to understand how well accessibility strategies in both the
public and private education sectors addressed the problems faced by disabled
pupils. It is possible to do this because the Act states that a local authority or
school must make a copy of their accessibility strategy available for inspection if
someone requests it.
To assess the public sector we focussed on the 32 local authorities and the 8
Grant-Aided Schools which are funded by the Scottish Government. With such
a large number of independent/private schools it was not possible to survey
them all. Instead, we attempted to cover the majority of the independent schools
in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and identified 21 to survey.
Our research was conducted in three stages:
1. A web search
2. An email request to the local authority or school
3. A review of the extent to which each accessibility strategy complied with
the requirements of the Act.
3. The results
Stage 1 – Web search
Local authorities and schools are not required to make a copy of their
accessibility strategy available on their website. It is, however, the place that
parents or pupils are most likely to look first. Our findings were:
 Local authority websites: We found 14 Accessibility Strategies within
the 32 websites, only 3 of which were current.
 Grant-Aided Schools: We found only 1 accessibility strategy within the 7
websites (2 schools are operated by 1 organisation). This was from the
only Grant-Aided School which does not provide specialist provision for
disabled pupils.
 Independent Schools: We found 2 accessibility strategies within the 21
websites, but only 1 of these could be accessed. The other required the
viewer to provide log-in details.
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Stage 2 – Email request
We sent a Freedom of Information email request to the 29 local authorities for
whom we had been unable to find a current accessibility strategy on their
website. The results, after one month, were as follows:
Response from the local authority
Responses
Strategy under review or being developed
11
Out of date accessibility strategy provided
6
Strategy is embedded in other strategies – but no
evidence found of this
5
Current accessibility strategy provided
5
Strategy is embedded in other strategies – some
evidence found to back this up
1
No information provided
1
Total
29
Current accessibility strategies found on the web
3
Total current accessibility strategies available
9
Whilst Grant-Aided Schools and independent schools are not covered by the
Freedom of Information Act, they are still required to make a copy of their
accessibility strategy available for inspection if someone requests it.
We emailed the 6 organisations running Grant Aided Schools for whom we’d
been unable to find an accessibility strategy on their website. The results, after
one month, were as follows:
Response from Grant Aided School
Responses
No information provided
4
Strategy is embedded in other strategies – no
evidence found of this
1
Accessibility strategy provided - created apparently
as a result of the request
1
Total
6
Current accessibility strategies found on the web
1
Total current accessibility strategies available
2
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We emailed the 19 independent schools for whom we could not find an
accessibility strategy on their website, and the 1 for whom it required log-in
details. The results, after one month, were as follows:
Response from independent school
Responses
No information provided
17
Strategy under review
1
Progress against Act requirements monitored
through a Committee; no current strategy available
1
Current accessibility strategy provided
1
Total
20
Current accessibility strategies found on web
1
Total current accessibility strategies available
2
Stage 3 – Review of strategies
The Act includes a number of duties in relation to accessibility strategies. We
scored the strategies we received against the following requirements:
 The strategy for:
o increasing the extent to which disabled pupils can participate in the
curriculum - S1(2)(a)
o improving the physical environment of the school - S1(2)(b)
o improving communication with disabled pupils - S1(2)(c)
o improving communication with prospective pupils - S1(2)(c)
o pre school and travelling people (if applicable) – only applies to local
authorities - S2
 Evidence that the strategy is kept under review - S1(4)
 Evidence that the strategy is implemented - S1(5)
 Whether the need to allocate resources has been taken into account S3(1)(a)
 Whether there has been consultation with children, parents and young
persons - S3(b)
 Whether it takes into account Scottish Government guidance as to:
o Content - S3(1)(c)(i)
o Persons to be consulted - S3(1)(c)(iii)
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SDEF’s assessment of the quality of the accessibility strategies is as follows:
Type of body
Good
Average
Poor
Total
Local authority
2
3
4
9
Grant-Aided School
0
0
2
2
Independent school
0
2
0
2
General weaknesses
The particularly weak areas across strategies were:
 SMART goals for improving access to the curriculum, the physical
environment and communication
The guidance produced in 2002 states that ‘Where possible, [those
creating Strategies] should use SMART (Specific, Measurable,
Achievable, Relevant and Timed) targets to specify what outcomes will be
achieved and by what date’. Very few strategies contained such targets;
many appeared to be ‘wish lists’ and contained no timescale or outcome.
 Resources
The Act requires that there must be ‘regard to the need to allocate
adequate resources for implementing the strategy’. There was some
attempt to highlight resources, but this focussed more on whose
responsibility it would be rather than identifying and obtaining the
resources required. The lack of SMART goals exacerbated this problem.
 Consultation
The Act requires local authorities and schools to ‘consult such children,
parents and young persons as they think fit’. It also, however, requires
them to have regard to the Scottish Government’s guidance. Few
strategies demonstrated any consultation and very few demonstrated
good practice in line with the guidance.
 Format of strategy
6 local authorities and 1 Grant-Aided School told us that their accessibility
strategy was included within other strategies. We could only find evidence
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of this in one case. We rated this strategy as poor as we could not find the
majority of the elements required by the Act.
The revised Scottish Government guidance on the Act includes a new
requirement that addresses this issue. It states that ‘Where an
accessibility strategy is incorporated into another plan, it should still be
clear, easily identifiable and extractable as an accessibility strategy within
that plan so that it is available for reference.’ We believe that this is an
essential update to the guidance to ensure an accessibility strategy can
be easily found.
Specific good practice
The systematic failure to meet clearly defined legal duties which has been
identified by SDEF’s research cannot be blamed on one particular element of
the education system. The Scottish Government, Education Scotland, local
authorities and individual schools are all responsible. For this reason we have
chosen not to highlight those who have performed badly and instead have
chosen to highlight good practice.
 Highland Council’s current accessibility strategy, whilst not available on
their website, deserves particular praise for its strength in nearly all areas.
It provides evidence of its intention to go beyond meeting legal duties and
to target improved practice and access in its schools.
 Dundee City Council’s strategy gave excellent information about the
improvements in access that they have made. It also highlights good
practice in the way it consults with pupils and involves a range of staff in
the strategy development and review.
 The strategies supplied by George Watson's College and available on St
George's School for Girls website demonstrated reasonable attempts to
address access issues. Both gave excellent reviews of their past
improvements and highlighted areas for improvement through the
strategies.
 Evidence of a lack of a current, good quality, strategy does not
necessarily mean good practice is not happening. We were supplied with
Erskine Stewart's Melville Schools’ Accessibility Strategy Standing
Committee minutes. These highlighted the close scrutiny of the schools’
work around access to the curriculum, physical access and
communication.
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4. Conclusions
The Education (Disability Strategies and Pupils’ Educational Records)
(Scotland) Act 2002 has clearly failed to ensure that there is a strategic
approach to improving disabled pupils’ access to education.
If the poor compliance with the Act that we have uncovered signals the reality
facing disabled pupils, these pupils are being badly let down by Scotland’s
education system. Some of the strategies recognised that pupils are being sent
to alternative, accessible, schools resulting in disabled children being separated
from friends and siblings.
The failings we have identified are particularly concerning in relation to physical
access to school premises. No other legislation requires schools to be
physically accessible for disabled pupils. The 2002 Act, and proactive strategies
to address access, are therefore disabled pupils’ only hope of seeing
improvements in accessibility.
As Highland Council’s strategy highlights:
‘Highland Council has nearly 200 schools, many of which are old Victorian
buildings. The process of updating and adapting this number of schools of
this age is significant and will take time and careful planning to achieve.’
Only by developing achievable objectives, consulting on them and identifying
the resources to implement them will such inaccessibility be addressed. Yet
these are the weakest areas of the few strategies that have been developed.
Taking a more holistic view, the legislation could be serving as a catalyst for
change for both schools and pupils alike. It should be improving access on a
practical level whilst engaging tomorrow’s architects and planners with the
concept – and importance – of inclusive design.
Joint working with local stakeholders such as Access Panels could go a long
way to achieving a positive and lasting shift in how we provide access to
education for all of Scotland’s children. These Access Panels, made up of
disabled volunteers, aim to both improve physical access and promote wider
social inclusion.
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5. Recommendations
1. The Scottish Government must develop a new approach to ensuring
the aims of the 2002 Act are met: simply refreshing the current guidance
will not achieve the necessary compliance.
2. The guidance on the Act must be more directive: the current guidance
has not produced good quality strategies - the refreshed version is very
similar and is therefore likely to deliver similar results.
3. There must be a greater focus on ensuring strategies have
deliverable objectives, with resources attached: disabled children
have a right to expect meaningful plans to be developed to meet their
needs.
4. There must be better consultation at strategic and school level: by
involving pupils and their parents, professionals and disabled people.
5. The issues of physical improvements to school premises must be a
priority: no other legal duties exist in relation to schools – the
acknowledged skills of Access Panels in this area should be embraced.
For more information, please contact:
Susan Grasekamp
Chief Executive Officer
Scottish Disability Equality Forum
1/7 e-Centre
Business Village
Cooperage Way
Alloa
FK10 3LP
Tel: 01259 272063
Email: [email protected]
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