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Equalities and Accessibility plan and policy 2024-2025

Equalities and Accessibility Plan and Policy

Date of issue: September 2024

Date of review: September 2025

Ratified by Academy Governing Council on:

Co-op Academy Oakwood is committed to safeguarding every student. We acknowledge that safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility and ensure all of our staff are trained to be vigilant and aware of the signs and indicators of abuse and understand and follow safe working practices.

The viewpoints and voice of students is of paramount importance to our Academy and we will always listen to their wishes, thoughts and feelings, as well as identifying and supporting their needs. We will work alongside students to develop trusting, consistent and professional relationships and show we care by advocating the early help processes where possible. We will identify any difficulties or concerns early in order to act preventatively. We will always provide support and advice for families and parents/carers, whilst acting in the best interests of the student at all times and doing what matters most. Safeguarding also includes ensuring we work in an open and honest way, enabling our students to feel safe by providing a secure learning environment, are equally protected regardless of any barriers they may face and are able to grow and develop in the same way as their peers.

Co-op Academy Oakwood safeguards students by:

Maintaining a secure site and ensuring that all visitors to the Academy are recorded, monitored and clear about how to raise a safeguarding concern should one arise.
Ensuring that safer recruitment practices are followed to prevent those who pose a risk to children gaining access to our students.
Filtering and monitoring all internet traffic into the Academy to ensure that students cannot be exposed to harmful material and communication.
Ensuring that all staff employed by the Academy have received Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) clearance which is recorded in the Single Central Record
Providing regular training and briefings for all staff in child protection and ensuring that all staff and visitors know who our designated safeguarding officers and designated senior lead are.
Ensuring that admission and attendance procedures are robust to protect students, ensure that they are safe and prevent students from going missing from education.
Empowering young people to identify risks both within the Academy and in their community; ensuring that they have the skills and confidence to help and protect themselves and others.
Making sure that all students understand the importance of reporting concerns about themselves and peers and giving them the confidence to discuss sensitive issues.
Providing pastoral and inclusion support to ensure that all students have access to guidance and advice, and when needed referrals for additional agency support to meet their needs.
Sharing information when appropriate with other agencies and services to ensure that students, children and their families have support to meet their needs and prevent students from harm or further harm
Taking immediate action and contacting the appropriate agencies when we believe that a student is in danger or is at risk of harm.

Co-op Academy Oakwood is committed to safeguarding and promoting the wellbeing of all of our pupils. We expect our staff, governors, wider professionals, volunteers and all other stakeholders to share this commitment. All of our policies are underpinned and linked to our safeguarding policy through this commitment.

1. Aims

Schools are required under the Equality Act 2010 to have an accessibility plan. The purpose of the plan is to:

Increase the extent to which disabled pupils can participate in the curriculum

Improve the physical environment of the school to enable disabled pupils to take better advantage of education, benefits, facilities and services provided
Improve the availability of accessible information to disabled pupils

Our school aims to treat all its pupils fairly and with respect. This involves providing access and opportunities for all pupils without discrimination of any kind.

We are committed to providing an environment that enables full curriculum access that values and includes all pupils, staff, parents and visitors regardless of their education and individual needs. We are committed to taking positive action in the spirit of the Equality Act 2010 with regard to disability and to developing a culture of inclusion, support and awareness within the school.

The plan will be made available online on the school website, and paper copies are available upon request.

Our school is also committed to ensuring staff are trained in equality issues with reference to the Equality Act 2010, including understanding disability issues.

The school supports any available partnerships to develop and implement the plan.

Our school’s complaints procedure covers the accessibility plan. If you have any concerns relating to accessibility in school, this procedure sets out the process for raising these concerns.

We have included a range of stakeholders in the development of this accessibility plan, including governors.

2. Legislation and guidance

This document meets the requirements of schedule 10 of the Equality Act 2010 and the Department for Education (DfE) guidance for schools on the Equality Act 2010.

The Equality Act 2010 defines an individual as disabled if he or she has a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ adverse effect on his or her ability to undertake normal day to day activities.

Under the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Code of Practice, ‘long-term’ is defined as ‘a year or more’ and ‘substantial’ is defined as ‘more than minor or trivial’. The definition includes sensory impairments such as those affecting sight or hearing, and long-term health conditions such as asthma, diabetes, epilepsy and cancer.

Schools are required to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ for pupils with disabilities under the Equality Act 2010, to alleviate any substantial disadvantage that a disabled pupil faces in comparison with non-disabled pupils. This can include, for example, the provision of an auxiliary aid or adjustments to premises.

3. Action plan

This action plan sets out the aims of our accessibility plan in accordance with the Equality Act 2010.

Aim	Current good practice Include established practice and practice under development	Objectives State short, medium and long-term objectives	Actions to be taken	Person responsible	Date to complete actions by	Success criteria
Increase access to the curriculum for pupils with a special educational need and or disability	Our school offers a differentiated curriculum for all pupils. We use resources tailored to the needs of pupils who require support to access the curriculum. Curriculum resources are inclusive and include examples of people with special educational needs and disabilities. Curriculum progress is tracked for all pupils, including those with a special educational need and or disability. Targets are set effectively and are appropriate for pupils with additional needs. The curriculum is reviewed to ensure it meets the needs of all pupils. Physical resources are acquired for those pupils who require them such as coloured overlays, microphones, hearing devices, sensory objects, ear defenders	Short term To purchase more resources e.g. books, that include examples of people with disabilities; sensory objects; curriculum resources	English subject group to complete a purchase of books with a focus on equality, diversity and seeing disability. SEND and inclusion team to purchase resources to support in class learning	English leader SEND leader	Termly Termly	Pupils have a greater access to books which represent and show disability. Pupils have access to resources which support learning in class.
		Medium term To track and monitor progress for all groups of pupils inc those with a special educational need and or disability.	Use Arbor to monitor pupils, with a focus on those with a disability. Identify any gaps and put in actions plans to diminish the difference.	Data leader	Termly	Any gaps in attainment are identified and if differences are evident then action plans are in place.
		Long term To complete accessibility audits for each subject area	Curriculum leader to create an audit format for each subject team to use on their subjects.	Curriculum leader	July 2025	All subjects are accessible to all pupils in the academy.
Improve and maintain access to the physical environment	Co-op Academy Oakwood is a PFI school and is accessible to all the children who currently attend. The school is on one level and has facilities for those with disabilities including wide corridors, disabled parking bays and disabled toilets. Resources around the school are positioned so that they are accessible and positioning is reviewed on an individual case-by-case basis.	Short term To use facilities and resources from the deaf unit to support deaf pupils in school.	Work with the DAHIT team to develop environments for children who access their services.	SENDco and SEND team	Spring 2025	Children are able to access the same learning as their peers.
		Medium term To consider the need for self-holding doors for the hall to allow for pupils using walking frames and wheelchairs to access the disabled toilet independently.	To work with MITE to maintain the school site by using monitoring systems and reporting systems.	MITIE, Office manager and SENDco	Spring 2025	Children are able to independently access all areas of the school
		Long term To maintain the school site in line with the needs of the children.	To work with MITE to maintain the school site by using monitoring systems and reporting systems.	MITIE, Office manager and SENDco	Ongoing	The school site is maintained, improved and developed to allow access to all pupils, staff and visitors.
Improve the delivery of information to pupils with a special educational need and or disability	Our school uses a range of communication methods. It has clear signage which uses large print, images and clear language. Letters are available in large print and are sent digitally too (meaning they can be translated, made larger etc).	Short term To train staff in the use of PECs Train staff in the use of BSL and Makaton	Staff to have PECs training. Staff to have training in BSL and or Makaton	SENDco	Spring 2025	Children can use PECs to communicate
		Medium term Train staff in the use of BSL and Makaton	Work with DAHIT and staff to have training in BSL and or Makaton	SENDco	Spring 2025	Children can use BSL and or Makaton to communicate
		Long term To conduct a whole school communication audit.	All staff to contribute to a staff audit about communication and the delivery of information.	SENDco	Summer 2025	School has completed an audit of all communication methods and how best to suit the needs of all stake holders.

4. Monitoring arrangements

This document will be reviewed every 3 years, but may be reviewed and updated more frequently if necessary.

It will be approved by the headteacher.

5. Links with other policies

This accessibility plan is linked to the following policies and documents:

Risk assessment policy
Health and safety policy
Equality information and objectives (public sector equality duty) statement for publication
Special educational needs (SEN) information report
Supporting pupils with medical conditions polic