Equality and Human Rights Commission

Everyone has the right to an effective education.

In other words, education should be appropriate to your (or your child’s) age, abilities and aptitudes. In practice, this generally means that schools and colleges must find effective ways to educate pupils who find either the school environment or the curriculum unsuitable for the following reasons:

• because they have a visual or hearing impairment, or because they do not understand the main language used in the classroom or lecture room, or
• because the place of education or particular facilities on site are hard to access, or inaccessible.

This is particularly important for:

• children up to the age of 19 with special educational needs (in Scotland, these are known as additional support needs, and help is provided until the age of 17), and
• disabled students of all ages.

Special educational needs

A pupil with special educational needs is defined as a pupil who:

• has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of pupils of their age, or
• has a disability which means that they cannot make full use of the general educational facilities provided for pupils of their age.

A pupil with special educational needs is entitled to receive full-time education, which is appropriate to their needs.

In England and Wales, this applies to children and young people between the ages of two and 19. This may be in a special school or a mainstream school, or somewhere else.

In Scotland, special educational needs are known as additional support needs. Children and young people between the ages of three and 17 with additional support needs are entitled to receive 'adequate and efficient' additional support to enable them to benefit fully from their education.

Help for children with special educational needs (England)

If you think your child may have special educational needs, you should ask your local authority to assess your child to find out what help he or she might need to get an appropriate education. If your child is already in school, discuss it first with your child’s teacher. Teachers are also expected to tell you as a parent if they think your child may have special educational needs.

In the first place, the school will probably try to provide extra help to your child. The basic level of extra help is known as School Action, and could be:

• a different way of teaching certain things
• some extra help from an adult, or
• using particular equipment like a computer or special desk.

Your child may need this help for only a short time, or for many years.

If this does not provide enough support, the school should talk to you about any additional support they can provide – or about getting your child to take a Statutory Assessment. This is a detailed investigation, by education professionals, to find out what your child's special educational needs are and what help your child would benefit from to meet these needs.

After the assessment, the local authority can then make a Statement of Special Educational Needs for your child, if appropriate. This will explain what your child’s special educational needs are, and say what the local authority thinks is the best way to meet them – either in mainstream school or a special school.

You should be consulted at every step and be kept informed about your child's progress.

Your local authority and other professionals should help you with the process, but you can also get advice and support from local advocacy services, disability groups, law centres and citizen's advice bureaux.

Find out more about special educational needs and the Statutory Assessment process.

Help for children with additional support needs (Scotland)

If your child is being educated in Scotland, and you think that your child may have additional support needs, you can ask your education authority to make an assessment of their educational needs. It can then make a Coordinated Support Plan stating the nature of your child's additional support needs and the type of support they require.

If you want more information about additional support consult an experienced adviser, for example at a citizens advice bureau.

Supporting pupils with disabilities

Disabled pupils have the right to an effective education, and under the Disability Discrimination Act, education providers are expected to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to ensure that this right is fulfilled.

This includes things like adjusting physical features (for example, lowering kerbs, removing obstacles or providing lifts), making sure training methods take account of the needs of disabled people (for example, by providing handouts in large print) and making sure extra-curricular activities are available to everyone.

It could also include things like:

• providing a pupil with learning difficulties with additional support in her written work so that she can achieve qualifications, or
• arranging for sign language interpretation in lessons for a deaf student.

What is ‘reasonable’?

In some cases, pupils' disabilities will mean that they are assessed as having special educational needs (or additional support needs in Scotland).

For more information about disability in education for schools in England and Wales should do, read this in-depth guide for parents (pdf) [Word version].