How to review your accessibility plan

What your accessibility plan needs to do 

All schools must have an accessibility plan to comply with the law. This is explained in the DfE's advice for schools on the Equality Act 2010 (page 29).

Aims of the plan

Your plan must aim to:

• Increase how much pupils with disabilities can participate in your curriculum
• Improve the physical environment so pupils with disabilities can take better advantage of the education, benefits, facilities and services that you provide
• Improve the availability of accessible information to pupils with disabilities

Schools also needs to be aware of the importance of providing adequate resources to implement the plan.

Schools and trusts can choose the plan's format

It can be a freestanding document or published as part of another document, such as the school improvement plan or equality policy. 

Some schools/trusts use the terms 'policy' and 'plan' interchangeably.

You must publish your accessibility plan

There's no requirement for where it should be published, as long as it's in an easily accessible location, such as on the school website. A DfE adviser told us this. 

Whether the plan is published online or not, your SEN information report must contain "information on" your accessibility plan, as specified in the DfE's online publication guidance for maintained schools and academies. The DfE adviser said this means that your SEN information report must confirm that your accessibility plan covers the 3 aims mentioned above.

A note for academies: always look to your funding agreement for specific details of what you must publish.

3 key questions to challenge the plan 

Your school or trust doesn't have to repeat the process to create a new accessibility plan every 3 years. Your board can choose to extend the current plan after reviewing it, if it's appropriate. Our associate education expert Bill Bolloten told us this. 

When reviewing the plan, ask leaders these questions:

1. What are the current accessibility needs? What are the potential future needs?

Your accessibility plan should take into consideration the real needs of pupils in your school or trust. Your leaders should be able to show you how the plan does this, and how they’ve considered any potential future needs. 

You'll also want to make sure the plan takes into account any particular individual needs that may not have been relevant the last time it was reviewed.

2. How effective has the plan been?

Your leaders should be able to show you evidence of whether the plan is working. Is it meeting accessibility needs? Has there been improvement in accessibility? If not, ask whether and why the plan needs updating.

Check whether your leaders have done, or have considered doing, an audit. This could help to establish potential barriers to access and what your school or trust can do about them. 

3. Have there been any changes in staffing and the pupil population?

If the answer is yes, ask leaders whether the changes are significant enough to require bigger changes to your current plan.

Your school(s) may have significantly changed since the plan was written, for example due to:

• Changes to the local population
• An increase or decrease in pupil intake 
• New buildings 

If so, you might need to take a bigger step back and have your leaders carry out more substantial audits and surveys of opinion to create a new plan. 

Further questions

See more questions to ask when reviewing any policy.

Model accessibility plans for schools and trusts 

These model documents are not meant as guides for writing or updating an accessibility plan, since that's your school or trust leaders' job. Instead, use them to give you a sense of what a good plan looks like. 

They're designed for your leaders to adapt to suit your school or trust's context. They includes a template plan which was created with the help of our associate education expert, Anita Devi. 

Download: model accessibility plan (schools)

Download: model accessibility plan (trusts)

Approved by Forbes Solicitors, these model documents take account of relevant requirements and good practice. For more model policies and complete policy support, see our Policy Bank.

Download our checklists 

Alternatively, you can use our checklists to get a sense of what your plan should cover.

Download: accessibility plan checklist (schools)

Download: accessibility plan checklist (trusts)

Examples from schools and trusts

School-level plans

• Amble Links First School, a community school in Northumberland
• Chew Valley School, an academy in Bath and North East Somerset, has delegated responsibility for the plan 
• The Bridge School, a community special school in Telford, includes its accessibility plan within its school improvement and equality plans
• The Joseph Rowntree School, a voluntary-controlled school in York

Trust-wide plan

drb Ignite Multi Academy Trust, a 10-school trust, has a trust-wide accessibility policy. You can download it from the 'education' section of its policies page. 

Trust policy adapted at school level

Birmingham Diocesan Multi-Academy Trust (BDMAT), a 19-school trust, has an accessibility plan policy. It sets out what each school's accessibility plan should consider and include, with the responsibility to create and monitor the plan delegated to the headteacher and local academy board respectively. 

St George's Church of England Primary School, in Birmingham, is a member of BDMAT. It publishes its accessibility plan, which is based on the principles set out in the trust-level policy.