In September this year, the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) was extended to cover education. This means that in addition to the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice that has been in place since January, all early years providers have to abide by a parallel Code of Practice from the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) as well.
'Since early years providers are already covered by the SEN framework they're probably meeting most of the new duties already,' points out Philippa Russell, director of the Council for Disabled Children and a Commissioner on the DRC. 'But they do have to consider whether they're treating disabled children less favourably than other children who do not have a disability.' As the two codes are the core underpinning for the legislation, she explains, providers cannot afford to ignore them, and any Ofsted inspection will take them into account as well. 'If parents took an appeal to the SEN and Disability Tribunal, a school or nursery would have to demonstrate that it had had regard to them.'
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