RMBC - Equality Analysis Form forCommissioning, Decommissioning, Decision making, Projects, Policies, Services, Strategies or Functions (CDDPPSSF)
Under the Equality Act 2010Protected characteristicsare age, disability, gender, gender identity, race, religion or belief, sexuality, civil partnerships and marriage, pregnancy and maternity. Page 6 of guidance. Other areas to note see guidance appendix 1Name of policy, service or function. If a policy, list any associated policies: / RMBC Accessibility Strategy 2015 – 2018 (Draft)
Name of service and Directorate / Children’s and Young People’s Services
Lead manager / Donald Rae (Strategic Lead SEND)
Date of Equality Analysis (EA) / 7th January 2015
Names of those involved in the EA (Should include at least two other people) / Donald Rae, Zahid Qureshie, Dean Fenton, John Coleman, Paula Williams. Karen Borthwick. Simon Priest,Jackie Parkin, Catherine Seddon.
Aim/Scope (who the Policy /Service affectsand intended outcomes if known) See page 7 of guidance step 1
This accessibility strategy applies to local authority maintained schools, nurseries, children’s centres and early years settings. It does not apply to academies, PFI funded schools or private nursery providers on school site - owners/governing bodies of provisions must produce their own accessibility strategy in accordance with the Equality Act.
The overall aim of this strategy is to ensure that RMBC supports schools it is responsible for, in meeting the needs of disabled pupils and raising their attainments. The purpose of the strategy is to ensure that accessibility of the curriculum, the physical environment and information for disabled pupils is central to the delivery of services and supports schools with their accessibility plans.
The Equality Act 2010 introduced a single Public Sector Equality Duty or ‘general duty’ that applies to public bodies, including maintained schools, academies and Free Schools. With regard to the planning duty for disabled pupils, three strands are identified as requirements for an accessibility strategy and accessibility plans.
Schools must implement accessibility plans, which are aimed at:
• Increasing the extent to which disabled pupils can participate in the school’s curriculum,
• Improving the physical environment of the school for the purpose of increasing the extent to which disabled pupils are able to take advantage of education and benefits, facilities or services provided or offered by the school, and
• Improving the delivery to disabled pupils of information which is readily accessible to pupils who are not disabled.
Schools will need to have regard to the need to provide adequate resources for implementing plans and must regularly review them.
Local Authorities must, for the schools for which they are responsible, prepare an accessibility strategy based on the same principle as the accessibility plans for schools.
What equality information is available? Include any engagement undertaken and identify any information gaps you are aware of. What monitoring arrangements have you made to monitor the impact of the policy or service on communities/groups according to their protected characteristics? See page 7 of guidance step 2
A local authority in England and Wales must, in relation to schools for which it is the responsible body, prepare an Accessibility Strategy (AS).
This AS is primarily designed to support schools in meeting the needs of disabled pupils and raising their expectations.
Equality information available:
Early years 0 to 5 equality data.
Support from the Early Years and Childcare is provided to all Private, Voluntary and Independent Early Years providers (PVI sector) throughout Rotherham who are Ofsted registered. These provisions include:
- Early Years Settings (Group Providers) (57)
- Out of School Clubs (6)
- Childminders (206 registered – 60 potential)
- Children Centre Day care (15)
Early Years Inclusion Grant - Early years’ service manage and provide the early years inclusion grant to support Ofsted registered PVI settings to enhance their staffing levels above ratio as identified with The Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum (EYFS) to meet the needs of children with identified SEND.This grant supports providers to allow children from 0-11 years old with SEND to access childcare and early education funded places and also allows families to be able to continue to work in employment. Numbers of children who have access the grant:
- April 2013-April 2014: 86 children
- April 2014-present: 70 Children. All these children have identified SEND
- September 2013-September 2014: 80 children accessed the service
- September- present there are 40 children currently accessing the service
6 Special schools: Total places = 620 (includes 40 new places in 2014/15);
•2 x SLD / Complex (2-19 years), One Executive Head teacher
•Hilltop 95 places - 5 place increase – 2014/15
•Kelford 100 places – 5 place increase – 2014/15; current consultation on prescribed alteration
•3 x MLD,
•Abbey105 places - in special measures
Milton 100 places – secondary specialism: Autism
The Willows100 places
•1 x Physical, Medical, Vulnerable
Newman90 places - plus new 30 place additional resource unit – 2014/15
6 Mainstream Units / Enhanced Resources: Total places = 87 (includes 10 new places in 2014):
Primary
•Kilnhurst (ASD)20 places: proposals - prescribed alteration link to Milton
•Flanderwell (ASD)10 places – new 2014/15 (pupils remain on roll of home school)
•Anston Hillcrest(Sp&L) 15 places
•Bramley Grange (HI)11 places
Secondary
•Swinton Community (ASD)20 places
•Wickersley (HI)11 places
The total number of specialist places (including schools and units but not post school provision) is currently 707. All but Abbey (87 of 105 places occupied), Milton (90/100 places) and the Newman additional resource unit (11/30 places) have full or near full occupancy (an overall 93% occupancy rate). Taking account of the new places in 2014/15, the projected 10% rise in SEND place requirements between 2014 and 2018 suggests an additional 20 places approximately would be needed. This does not take account of occupancy rates at Abbey and Newman Resource, however and the potential closure of Abbey School (105 places / (87 occupied) would significantly increase this gap.
The LA currently commissions 166 post-school High Needs specialist places at FE Colleges and other providers. A strong partnership exists with Rotherham’s post-school providers focused upon developing a positive curriculum offer encompassing personalised approaches. Ofsted have recognised current developments with Morthyng as excellent practice.
Quality of Provision
The most recent Ofsted judgments for the 6 special schools are: 1 Outstanding (Milton), 1 Inadequate (Abbey) and 4 ‘Good’. Of the 6 mainstream schools hosting aSEND Unit, 3are or have converted to Academy status, (Wickersley, Bramley Grange, Flanderwell), of the other three, 1 is Outstanding (Anston Hillcrest), 1 ‘Good’ (Swinton) and 2 ‘Require Improvement’ (Kilnhurst and Flanderwell).
Engagement undertaken with customers. (date and group(s) consulted and key findings)See page 7 of guidance step 3 / SEND Transformation Group
Strategy sent to the SEND Transformation Group. The group has members from the Rotherham Parent Carer Forum, schools, colleges and GPs as well as officers from the Council and Rotherham Clinical Commissioning Group (NHS).AS and Equality Strategy presented on the 11th of Feb. AS and EA was well received by all partners and were happy to proceed. It was mentioned that we should, as well as disability include the protected characteristic of Gender. This has been added to the AS.
Engagement undertaken with schools.
Engagement undertaken with Childrens Centres
Engagement undertaken with staff about the implications on service users(date and group(s)consulted and key findings) See page 7 of guidance step 3 / Stuart Carr, David Wilde (RMBC Building Managers)
Dean Fenton, Service Leader
Stuart Carr meets with the Access Audit Groupbi annually to address any physical access issues to our buildings. Any issues raised by the AAG are usually implemented. This usually goes beyond statutory DDA compliance. All our buidings are DDA compliant and those that are not were closed down.
Where Capital Programme funding or other funding Streams such as Section 106 developer contributions are used to fund school expansions or new build schools or other Education premises, accessibility to all pupils will be an integral part of the design and build programme.
There is currently one new build school in the Borough, under construction and scheduled to open in September 2015 which has been designed to maximise accessibility and enhance learning opportunities for pupils with a disability.
How do you think the Policy/Service meets the needs of different communities and groups? Protected characteristics of age, disability, gender, gender identity, race, religion or belief, sexuality, Civil Partnerships and Marriage, Pregnancy and Maternity.Rotherham also includes Carers as a specific group. Other areas to note are Financial Inclusion, Fuel Poverty, and other social economic factors.This list is not exhaustive - see guidance appendix 1 and page 8 of guidance step 4
The adoption of a Accessibility Strategy (AS) is a statutory requirement that local authorities need to have. This is the first AS that RMBC has developed. This AS is primarily designed to support schools in meeting the needs of disabled pupils and raising their expectations.
The overall aim of this strategy is to ensure that RMBC supports schools it is responsible for, in meeting the needs of disabled pupils and raising their attainments. Further, the strategy is to ensure that accessibility of the curriculum, the physical environment and information for disabled pupils is central to the delivery of services and supports schools with their accessibility plans.
Our role will be to monitor the contribution of every school regarding special educational needs (SEN) and if they have a Accessibility Plan (AP). We provide support to schools in how they gather information around SEN and how they then provide that to the public.
The primary protected characteristic that the AS will impact is disability and to a lesser extent, gender. We will monitor the impact of this strategy by working in partnership with schools to ensure that the accessibility of the curriculum, the physical environment and information for disabled pupils is central to the delivery of services and supports schools with their accessibility plans.
We will monitor the impact of this strategy to see If any disproportionate or negative impact in service delivery/outcome to children who have a SEN is identified. Immediate remedial action will be taken if any issues around differential impact on children with a SEN are identified.
Analysis of the actual or likely effect of the Policy or Service:
See page 8 of guidance step 4 and 5
Does your Policy/Service present any problems or barriers to communities or Group? Identify by protected characteristicsDoes the Service/Policy provide any improvements/remove barriers? Identify by protected characteristics
This AS has been adopted to support schools in removing any barriers that children with SEN might experience in terms of :
- Accessibility to the curriculum (The curriculum is not only teaching and learning but the wider curriculum of the school such as participation in clubs, leisure, sporting and cultural activities or school visits.)
- Accessibility to the physical environment (The environment includes steps, stairways, kerbs, exterior surfaces, parking areas, building entrances and exits. There are a number of improvements to physical access including ramps, handrails, lifts, widened doorways, adapted toilets etc. Physical aids to access might include ICT equipment, enlarged computer screens and keyboards, switches, specialist desks and chairs etc.Changing the physical environment can improve classroom acoustics, resulting in improved listening conditions for all pupils e.g. carpets, acoustic ceiling tiles)
- Accessibility of information ( Effective support services to provide for individual children with low incidence disabilities including hearing and visual impairment and physical disability. This involves close working with Health and Social Services and includes helping schools to make written material available in alternative formats for individual pupils)
What affect will the Policy/Service have on community relations? Identify by protected characteristics
This Strategy aims to have a positive impact on community relations.
Please list any actions and targets by Protected Characteristic that need to be taken as a consequence of this assessment and ensure that they are added into your service plan.
Website Key Findings Summary:To meet legislative requirements a summary of the Equality Analysis needs to be completed and published.
RMBC - Equality Analysis Form forCommissioning, Decommissioning, Decision making, Projects, Policies, Services, Strategies or Functions (CDDPPSSF)
Equality Analysis Action Plan - See page 9 of guidance step 6 and 7
Time Period …2015 - 18…………
Manager:……Donald Rae…………………………Service Area:…CYPS………………………………Tel:………254821……….
Title of Equality Analysis:
If the analysis is done at the right time, i.e. early before decisions are made, changes should be built in before the policy or change is signed off. This will remove the need for remedial actions. Where this is achieved, the only action required will be to monitor the impact of the policy/service/change on communities or groups according to their protected characteristic.
List all the Actions and Equality Targets identified
Action/Target / State Protected Characteristics (A,D,RE,RoB,G,GI O,SO, PM,CPM, C or All)* / Target date (MM/YY)Use the Accessibility Strategy to facilitate the development of Accessibility Plans within our schools and Childrens Centres and all early years settingsLSS to start to chase up broken/not working/not found websites/SEND info reps/accessibility policies / Disability/Gender / August 2015 ongoing
Monitor children’s centre and schools compliance with implementation of accessibility plans. / Disability/Gender / August 2016
This strategy will be reviewed annually by the Director of Children and Young People’s Services. / Disability/Gender / Annually commencing January 2016
Name Of Director who approved Plan / Date
*A = Age, C= Carers D= Disability, G = Gender, GI GenderIdentity, O= other groups,RE= Race/ Ethnicity, RoB= Religion or Belief, SO= Sexual Orientation, PM=Pregnancy/Maternity, CPM = Civil Partnership or Marriage.
Website Summary – Please complete for publishing on our website and append to any reports to Elected Members, SLT or Directorate Management Teams
equality impact assessment / Key findings / Future actionsDirectorate:CYPS......
Function, policy or proposal name:
Accessibility Strategy
Function or policy status:New
(new, changing or existing)
Name of lead officer completing the assessment:
Zahid Qureshie/Donald Rae......
Date of assessment:8 January 2015...... / The primary protected characteristic that the AS will impact is disability and gender. We will monitor the impact of this strategy by working in partnership with schools to ensure that the accessibility of the curriculum, the physical environment and information for disabled pupils is central to the delivery of services and supports schools with their accessibility plans.
We will monitor the impact of this strategy to see If any disproportionate or negative impact in service delivery/outcome to children who have a SEN. Immediate action will be taken if any issues around differential impact on children with a SEN are identified. / Rotherham’s Special Educational Needs and Disability Plan - This plan sets out the local authority’s vision for the delivery of services to support children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. Show examples of outcomes from this plan.
Use the Accessibility Strategy to facilitate the development of Accessibility Plans within our schools and Childrens Centres and all early years settings LSS to start to chase up broken/not working/not found websites/SEND info reps/accessibility policies
Monitor children’s centre and schools compliance with implementation of accessibility plans.
This strategy will be reviewed annually by the Director of Children and Young People’s Services.