Equality Act 2010

If you have concerns, the first step would be to discuss your worries with the school, ensuring that they are fully aware of the nature and extent of your child’s disability. You may find it helpful to ask what reasonable adjustments the school is making, and to explore other support strategies together. Provide the school with any evidence you have from health services regarding your child’s disability, or contact details for health professionals working with your child who the school can liaise with regarding reasonable adjustments. You may also wish to include the Governors in this discussion or formalise your worries and concerns in writing to the Head Teacher and Governing Body of the school.

If your child has an Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan, refer to the contents named within the provision. You may find it useful to also discuss your concerns with a member of the EHC Assessment Team. Note – registering a claim with the tribunal does not require you to have raised your concerns with the school or Governing Body in the first instance.

If, following your discussions with the school, you still have concerns that your child is or has been discriminated against due to their disability, you may wish to register a claim of disability discrimination with the First Tier SEND Tribunal. You must do this within 6 months of the event which would be the subject of the claim.

Typical examples of what the Tribunal may order include:

• a formal written apology
• disability training/guidance for staff
• drawing up, reviewing or altering school policies
• meetings between the Local Authority, school, parents, and pupil to review what reasonable adjustments may be required
• that a school makes reasonable adjustments e.g., relocation of facilities

The Tribunal cannot order:

• financial compensation
• changes to a child’s EHC Plan
• the dismissal of a teacher

In addition to a failure to make reasonable adjustments, there are also other types of disability discrimination which the tribunal can hear under the Equality Act 2010, these are:

• Direct Discrimination – when a person is treated less favourably due to their disability, compared with another who does not have a disability
• Discrimination arising out of disability – where a person is treated less favourably because of something arising in consequence of their disability, and the person cannot show that the treatment is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. This would not apply if the person did not know and could not reasonably have been expected to know that the other individual has the disability
• Indirect discrimination – This occurs when a provision, criterion or practice is applied in the same way for all pupils, but this has the effect of putting disabled pupils at a particular disadvantage
• Harassment and victimisation – When a person engages in unwanted conduct related to an individual’s disability and this has the purpose/effect of violating the individual’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading humiliating, or offensive environment for the individual. Victimisation occurs when a person victimises another, if they subject the individual to a detriment because they have a disability or believe they have a disability

Guidance on how to make a disability discrimination claim to the Tribunal is available from the Ministry of Justice website at; https://www.gov.uk/courts-tribunals/first-tier-tribunal-special-educational-needs-and-disability  

Please note that disability discrimination claims against education providers other than schools (for example colleges) must be brought to the County Court rather than the SEND Tribunal. Please seek Legal Advice for further information regarding this.