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LIVE-Accessibility Plan Policy

Co-op Academy Glebe

Academy Owner:		Mandy Hancock
Governor Owner:		Vicki England
Policy Date:		8 December 2023
Review Date:		December 2024
Frequency:		Annual

Introduction

At Co-op Academy Glebe we believe that every child should have access to a broad, balanced, relevant and differentiated curriculum. This should take account of their individual strengths and needs and should allow each child to fulfil their potential.

Responsibilities

The governors of the school are responsible for determining the content of the policy and the Head of School for implementation.

Publication

This policy will be published on the school website.

Monitoring and evaluating

This policy will be monitored as part of the schools’ monitoring and evaluation programme.

Inclusion and equality statement

Our school is an inclusive school. We aim to make all children feel included in all our activities. We try to make all our teaching fully inclusive. We recognise the entitlement of all children to a balanced, broadly-based curriculum. We have systems in place for early identification of barriers to their learning and participation so that they can engage in school activities with all other children. We acknowledge the need for high expectations and suitable targets for all children.

We actively encourage equity and equality through our work. No gender, race, creed, sexuality or ethnicity will be discriminated against. The school’s Disability Equality Policy will be followed and the use of stereotypes under any of the above headings will always be challenged.

Statement of intent

This plan outlines the proposals of the governing body of Glebe Academy to maintain/increase access to education for pupils with disabilities in the three areas required by the planning duties in the Equality Act 2010.

These include:

Increasing the extent to which pupils with disabilities can participate in the school curriculum.
Improving the environment of the school to increase the extent to which pupils with disabilities can take advantage of education, benefits, facilities and services provided
Improving information delivery to pupils with disabilities which is readily available to other pupils.

The above procedures have been delivered within a reasonable time and the plan is regularly monitored by the SENDCo and the Academy Business Leader to ensure we continue to meet the needs of the current/future cohort of pupils within school. Amendments/additions are made as part of the consultation process with the parents/carers and pupil. The overarching aim is to ensure that we can fully meet the needs of all our pupils.

In the preparation of an accessibility strategy, the academy must have regard to the need to allocate adequate resources in the implementation of the strategy.

Our Accessibility Plan shows how access can be improved for disabled pupils, staff and visitors to the school in a given time frame and anticipating the need to make reasonable adjustments to accommodate their needs where practicable.

The Accessibility Plan will contain relevant and timely actions to:

Increase access to the curriculum for pupils with a disability, expanding the curriculum as necessary to ensure pupils with a disability are as equally prepared for life as are the able-bodied pupils; this covers teaching and learning and the wider curriculum of the school such as participation in after-school clubs, leisure and cultural activities or school visits - it also covers provision of specialist or auxiliary aids and equipment, which may assist these pupils in accessing the curriculum within a reasonable timeframe.
Improve access to the physical environment of the school, adding specialist facilities as necessary –this covers improvements to the physical environment of the school and physical aids to access education within a reasonable timeframe.
Improve the delivery of written information to pupils, staff, parents and visitors with disabilities; examples might include handouts, timetables, textbooks and information about the school and school events; the information should be made available in preferred formats within a reasonable timeframe.

The Accessibility Plan relates to the key aspects of physical environment, curriculum and written information.

The governing body also recognises its responsibilities towards employees with disabilities and will:

Monitor recruitment procedures to ensure that persons with disabilities are provided with equal opportunities.
Provide appropriate support and provision for employees with disabilities to ensure that they can carry out their work effectively without barriers.
Undertake reasonable adjustments to enable staff to access the workplace.

The plan will be resourced, implemented, reviewed and revised in consultation with the:

Parents of pupils
Principal and other relevant members of staff
Governors
External partners

Head of School Chair of Governors

Mrs K Suleman Mrs K Price

Planning duty 1: Curriculum - Compliance

Co-op Academy Glebe AGC undertake an annual audit of the extent to which pupils with disabilities can access the curriculum on an equal basis with their peers. Short, medium and long term action plans are identified to address specific gaps and improve access. All procedures (if any) will be carried out in a reasonable time, and after taking into account pupils’ disabilities and the preferences of themselves or their parents/carers. The SEND link governor will audit provision and feed back to the full governing board.
	Compliant	Ensure continuing compliance by audit	Who	When	Outcome criteria	Review
Short term	Staff members know the curriculum is accessible	Regular developmental drop ins, observations and discussion in pupil progress meetings.	Head of School/ SLT/teachers/SENDCo	Ongoing Monitoring	Management and teaching staff have not identified any accessibility gaps in the curriculum	Annual review
	Staff members have the skills to support pupils with SEND	INSET provided to staff members Mentoring/CPD in place	Head of School/External advisors/SENDCo	Ongoing Monitoring	Staff members have the skills to support children with SEND	Annual review
	Ensure disabled children can take part equally in lunchtime and after school activities	Discuss with staff who run out of school clubs, and people running other clubs after school. Support would need to be available – especially after school	Head of School/ External advisors/SENDCo	Ongoing Monitoring	Staff members have the skills to support children with SEND	Annual review
Medium term	School trips take into account children with SEND	Needs of children with SEND incorporated into planning process. Risk assessments and reasonable adjustments made.	Teachers/SENDCo/ EVC	Ongoing Monitoring	Planning of school trips takes into account children with disabilities	Annual review
Long term	Pupils with SEND access lessons	Tablets and other adjustments to pupils with SEND	Head of School/ICT Manager/SENDCo	Ongoing Monitoring	Pupils with SEND can access lessons	Annual review

Planning duty 2: Physical environment - Compliance

Glebe Academy Governing Body undertake an annual audit of the extent to which pupils with disabilities can access the physical environment on an equal basis with their peers. Short, medium and long term action plans are identified to address any specific gaps and improve access. All procedures are carried out in a reasonable time, and after taking into account pupils’ disabilities and the preferences of themselves or their parents/carers. The SEND link governor will audit provision and feed back to the full governing board.
	Compliant	Ensure continuing compliance by audit	Who	When	Outcome criteria	Review
Short term	SLT knows the school’s physical environment is accessible by ensuring awareness of the access needs of disabled children, staff, governors and parents/ carers	Audit of physical environment. 1. Create access plans for individual disabled children as part of the SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) process. 2. Ensure staff and governors can access areas of school used meetings 3. Annual reminder to parents and carers through newsletter to let us know if they have problems with access to areas of school. 4. Ensure a PEEP (Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan) is prepared and reviewed if someone at school (pupil or adult) becomes physically impaired	Head of School/SENDCo/ Academy Business Leader/Premises Officer	Ongoing Monitoring	School is aware of any accessibility gaps to its physical environment, and will update plans to address them	Annual review
Medium term	Learning environment of pupils with visual impairment is accessible	Engagement with the visual impairment team Training needs met where appropriate	Head of School/SENDCO/ Academy Business Leader/Premises Officer/ SEND services	Ongoing Monitoring	Learning environment is accessible to pupils with visual impairments	Annual review
	Learning environment of pupils with hearing impairment is accessible	Engagement with the hearing impairment team via teachers of the deaf. Training needs met where appropriate.	Head of School/SENDCO/ Academy Business Leader/Premises Officer / SEND services	Ongoing Monitoring	Learning environment is accessible to pupils with hearing impairments	Annual review
	Toilets are accessible	Audit of physical environment	Head of School/ENDCO/ Academy Business Leader/Premises Officer	Ongoing Monitoring	Access to toilets for all	Annual review
Long term	Children with physical disabilities access school buildings	Audit of physical environment, considering children with mobility aids such as walking frame or wheelchair.	Head of School/SENDCO/ Academy Business Leader/Premises Officer	Ongoing Monitoring	School buildings are fully accessible – ramps, rails, wide access doors if needed	Annual review

Planning duty 3: Information - Compliance

Glebe Academy Governing Body undertake an annual audit of the extent to which pupils with disabilities can access the physical environment on an equal basis with their peers. Short, medium and long term action plans are identified to address any specific gaps and improve access. All procedures are carried out in a reasonable time, and after taking into account pupils’ disabilities and the preferences of themselves or their parents/carers. The SEND link governor will audit provision and feed back to the full governing board.
	Compliant	Ensure continuing compliance by audit	Who	When	Outcome criteria	Review
Short term	Management and staff know the school information is accessible and can be accessed in a variety of formats	Audit of information delivery procedures	SENDCO/ICT Team/ Academy Business Leader	Ongoing Monitoring	School has no accessibility gaps to its information delivery procedures	Annual review
Medium term	Written information is accessible to pupils with visual impairments	School continuing to seek advice from external advisors	SENDCO/ICT Team/ Academy Business Leader	Ongoing Monitoring	Written information is fully accessible to children with visual impairments	Annual review
Long term	School website is accessible to children with SEND	Audit of website	SENDCO/ICT Team/ Academy Business Leader	Ongoing Monitoring	Website is fully accessible	Annual review