Professional practice in SEND often centres on the demands of the needs-led Warnock Framework, but a greater focus on the Equality Act (2010) framework can bring both new insights for teachers and a clear framework for ensuring barriers are removed and outcomes for children with SEND improved. The Equality Act has not had the same focus in the SEND reforms due to its lack of integration and lack of knowledge about its requirements (Mathews et al., 2024, Lamb 2019), including extensions in 2012 that brought the provision of individual adjustments for children with SEND into its orbit.
The DfE is now part of the way through delivering the implementation plan aimed at addressing the current failings of the 2014 SEND reforms (DfE 2023a). One of the main drivers of the DfE implementation plan has been the massive growth in EHC plans (EHCPs) as parents have increasingly lost faith in the ‘ordinarily available’ offer in schools and seek legally guaranteed support (DfE 2022).
However, the Equality Act 2010 protections, especially with respect to the requirements to provide reasonable adjustments for individual pupils, could play an important role in ensuring that children and young people with SEND access the support they need without recourse to an EHCP – in doing so ensuring that children with SEND are properly supported as part of the ‘ordinarily available’ offer and still have legal protection for the support they receive. It is therefore imperative that teachers and schools more generally understand their obligations under the legislation and, more importantly, can use the measure creatively as a tool to ensure children can achieve better outcomes.
The role of 'reasonable adjustments' in meeting the needs of children with disabilities
Producing a particular type of statutory protection (EHCP) is not the only way of producing a legally binding right to the services (Florian 2002).