Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the inclusion of physically disabled children in schooling.

The government takes seriously its role in promoting inclusion and equality in education settings and the Equality Act 2010 (together with Part 3 of the Children and Families Act 2014) is a foundation stone on which our special educational needs (SEN) and disability system sits. The Equality Act requires all schools (whether maintained or academy) to produce an accessibility plan. These plans are about ensuring that all aspects of school life are accessible to disabled pupils. The Act also requires local authorities to produce accessibility strategies with the same aims as the school-level plan, but with different coverage.

We have funded the Schools Development Support Agency, working with pdnet to deliver a contract to improve knowledge, skills and capability of the school workforce. Pdnet standards have been developed for the early years, schools and post 16 settings, along with level 1 training for schools raising awareness of physical disabilities. Further information about pdnet is available on http://pdnet.org.uk/.