A bit more about all six guides in a minute but why now? Why so many guides?
There is a new sense of purpose about, and a commitment to, inclusion:
Ofsted are expected to ensure there is a much sharper focus on inclusion in the new inspection framework after many reports highlighting a lack of ambition for children with SEN and disabilities, higher rates of exclusion, absence, missing from school and the use of unofficial exclusions.
In its interim report, the Curriculum and Assessment Review has identified the need for a more inclusive approach with a commitment to drive up standards for young people who are currently underserved by our education system and to apply a social justice lens throughout its work, applying high aspirations for all.
The combined Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework has a significant focus on the needs of trainees and Early Career Teachers when supporting pupils with SEN and disabilities. It is designed to improve inclusivity for SEND throughout the framework and to enable teachers to become expert teachers who can transform the lives [of] all pupils.
At the same time, there are consistent messages from the Government about the need for more inclusive mainstream schools.
This series of guides to the disability duties in the Equality Act, commissioned by the DfE, alongside new training programmes for schools and early years settings, reflects the importance the DfE attaches to the duties in achieving their vision of a more inclusive future.
But, I hear you say, the Equality Act duties have been in place for 15 years, and the disability duties have applied to schools since 2001.
Well, yes, but…
When the disability duties were first extended to cover schools, a wealth of materials and training were commissioned by the (then) Department for Children, Schools and Families: materials for schools, early years settings and LAs; terrific video materials of reasonable adjustments for children and young people with a wide range of different impairments in a wide range of different settings; and teacher training materials commissioned by the (then) Training and Development Agency for Schools – materials that were piloted and adopted in a number of teacher training establishments.
Then in 2010, the disability discrimination duties, along with, if I remember rightly, well over 100 other bits of legislation were moved into the Equality Act. A great streamlining, and intended strengthening, of all our equalities legislation.
In some way, it feels as if the distinctiveness of the disability duties was diminished in this process:
- the fact that, for most protected characteristics, equality lies in same treatment but for disability relies on different treatment or reasonable adjustments;
- the difficulty in grasping the breadth of the definition;
- the feeling that, somehow, the duties erode good behaviour and good discipline in schools rather than support them; and
- of course, the fact that, overnight, all those earlier materials that had been developed to support the implementation of the duties became out-of-date.
All these things, and maybe others, may have made it more difficult for everyone implementing the duties to do so confidently and on the basis of a sound understanding of what the duties require.
You might say this is a sweeping generalisation, and you’re right. There are many schools who know, understand well and apply their responsibilities to disabled children and young people. I have had the privilege of working with a number of highly inclusive schools recently and they are acutely focused on the protections locked into the duties, deploying their resources well to ensure that every child belongs, is valued and is learning in their school.
But case law arising from Tribunal decisions tells us that there are schools who haven’t grasped the breadth of the definition; the implications of the duties for day-to-day decision-making; what we need to do to ensure that disabled children stay in classrooms, learning alongside their peers; and that this more inclusive ethos works to the benefit of all.
The new guides set the more strategic duties, the Public Sector Equality Duty and the accessibility planning duties, alongside the day-to-day duties and draw on recent case law. All the guides place an emphasis on a whole setting approach to the duties. The duties don’t really work unless everyone embeds them in their own area of responsibility, whether class, subject, pastoral, management or leadership responsibilities.
Two of the guides, one for schools, one for FE, focus on the responsibilities of governors and trustees. When we piloted the materials, governors and the executive leadership alike welcomed the checkpoints we included in the guides. They all said the materials improved their conversations and helped to ensure it was part of the overall responsibility of governing boards, not just a specialist governor working closely with the SENCO. In effect it helped to make inclusion everyone’s responsibility.
The Accessibility Planning Handbook adopts a wider school improvement approach to the disability duties. We hope it will be a useful tool for schools in taking a school-wide approach to the preparation of their new accessibility plan for 2027 when the next ones are due.
So, I say these guides are timely and, alongside other recent developments, can help early years settings, schools and FE colleges to craft a more inclusive future, so that collectively we can contribute to that Ofsted vision of a future where all pupils can thrive together, understanding that difference is a positive, not a negative, and that individual characteristics make people unique.
Philippa Stobbs OBE
July 2025
Click here to access the guides
