Accessibility self-evaluation framework (SEF)

It is the ambition in Norfolk for all education settings (including early years and post-16) to have an accessibility plan, informed by the completion of an accessibility self-evaluation framework (SEF) (Word doc, 101 KB).

Completing an accessibility SEF will help a setting to plan and prioritise the changes needed to improve accessibility for children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), their families and staff.

It is recommended that an accessibility SEF is completed annually, involving:

• Children and young people with SEND
• Parents and carers
• Staff
• Leadership team
• Governors

The Norfolk Accessibility Self-Evaluation Framework (NASEF) has been designed to support all educational settings to consider the accessibility of their offer. The NASEF includes materials to support reflective conversations and subsequent actions to improve accessibility. It is split into six evaluation themes:

1. Relationships
2. Communication
3. Training
4. Environments
5. Curriculum
6. Transitions

Each theme describes the intent which is what 'should' be happening alongside a table with the following headings:

• Implementation - What should the 'intent' look like in practice?
• Impact - What does it look like in practice? Evaluate your practice.
• Areas for development and prioritisation - What do you need to do to improve practice? How urgent is it?

Ideas for gathering feedback to inform your accessibility plan

Survey for parents and carers

• A survey example for parent and carers can be found at: https://forms.office.com/r/2jLcuvGJXT
• You will need to make your own form so that feedback comes back directly to your setting
• You will need to change the 'Notes for completion' to match the survey that you send out, eg the number of questions and completion time
• There may be areas of particular focus that you want to work on, you could focus your questions on this aspect of accessibility in your setting
• As a setting you need to decide whether feedback will be anonymous or not and add this into your survey introduction
• You may choose to ask for additional information such as year group of the child/young person (CYP), this would ideally be added as questions at the start
• If you are asking questions to inform changes, make sure that you can make those changes, or give a good reason why certain changes can't be made. There is a place on your plan to give this information (Section 5 - challenges to accessibility that we want to address)

Ideas for face-to-face sessions with parents and carers

• You may already have a parent and carer forum or group who co-produce or support the writing of your SEN information report who would be well placed to inform your accessibility plan, you may want to arrange a meeting or use an existing meeting to start these conversations. Your parents and carers will also be well placed to contribute to the types of questions you might want in your survey.
• Using existing parent and carer engagement opportunities such as visits to the setting, open evenings to gather feedback.
• Utilise existing review meetings (SEN Support/EHCP/PEP) to add questions about accessibility as it relates to individual CYP. You could use the survey questions as a starting point, but you may want to personalise them further.

Other questions (not included in the example survey) that you might want to ask

• How you meet the sensory needs of your setting community? Areas of focus might be lighting, noise, uniform, outdoor play or continuous provision. These may be better placed to be asked on an individual basis
• How is behaviour impacted by the accessibility of your setting? Asking questions about how behaviour at home is impacted is important to understand but may lend itself better to individual conversations

What do your children and young people think

• Using a school council meeting or setting up a focus group, the survey questions can be used as prompts or adapt questions for CYP (depending on age of CYP)
• For early years settings you could use observations to reflect on the key accessibility themes
• Asking school council to carry out surveys at break or lunch times
• Asking CYP to take part in an accessibility learning walk with a member of staff or governor. The survey questions will help identify things you may ask CYP to look out for

Finding out what your staff think

• Any of the above ideas could be used; a paper copy of a survey with a box to leave them in might be one way of gathering the views of the wider community
• Questions for the wider community might focus on, for example, relationships, the physical environment, training opportunities, support available, systems or processes that support or hinder accessibility