Equality Act 2010: reasonable adjustments

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

Last reviewed on 15 May 2024
School types: AllSchool phases: AllRef: 39220
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 schools can't legally discriminate against people with this characteristic.

As part of this, schools must make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to minimise disadvantages to pupils, staff and parents/carers with disabilities. If an adjustment is reasonable, your school or trust 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/trust is overall and make adjustments where you can.

If you have a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) link governor, they can find out more about their role here. You can also monitor how your school is developing a culture of inclusion and safety using this article.

Definition of disability

They have