Equality Act 2010: reasonable adjustments

Understand how to provide reasonable adjustments for pupils, staff and parents/carers with disabilities - including for school trips and after-school clubs.

Last reviewed on 18 May 2023
School types: AllSchool phases: AllRef: 6636
Contents
  1. Definition of disability
  2. What are reasonable adjustments?
  3. Deciding what's ‘reasonable’ for pupils
  4. Deciding what's ‘reasonable’ for staff
  5. Deciding what's ‘reasonable’ for parents/carers
  6. Using and providing auxiliary aids and services
  7. Reasonable adjustments at after-school clubs
  8. Reasonable adjustments for school trips
  9. Reasonable adjustments and accessibility planning

Disability is a ‘protected characteristic’ under the Equality Act 2010 and you can't legally discriminate against people with that characteristic.

As part of this, you must make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to minimise disadvantages to pupils, staff and parents/carers with disabilities. If an adjustment is reasonable, you must make it.

It's important to consider the adjustments you make and your school's procedures to make sure all stakeholders feel comfortable to participate in the school community. So although there are laws surrounding this, it's best practice to evaluate how inclusive your school is overall and make adjustments where you can.

Definition of disability

Regulation 6 of the Equality Act 2010 says a person has a disability if:

According to the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Code of Practice, which applies