SENDA Steering Group

Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 (SENDA)

Background
The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 (SENDA) extended the scope of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 to include education providers. This Act made it unlawful to discriminate against disabled students or other disabled people by treating them less favourably than others. Institutions are required to provide certain types of reasonable adjustments, for compliance by September 2005.

These requirements include:

1. To ensure by September 2002 that admissions procedures and student services do not place a disabled person at substantial disadvantage in comparison with a person who is not disabled;
2. To ensure by September 2003 that reasonable adjustments are made relating to the provision of auxiliary aids and services to ensure that disabled people and students are not placed at a significant disadvantage;
3. To ensure by September 2005 that reasonable adjustments are made to physical features of the University's premises where these may put disabled people at a significant disadvantage.

The SENDA Steering Group (originally known as the SENDA Project Management Team) was formed in May 2002 to consider actions and prioritisation of expenditure required of the University to comply with the requirements and to monitor and evaluate implementation. The team provide regular progress reports to help ensure that all colleagues are informed about the progress the University is making towards complying with this legislation

Membership of the SENDA Project Management Team

Mr Jon Bursey, Registrar
Mrs Diane Aderyn, Director of Finance
Dr David Skidmore, Chair of the Advisory Committee on Disability
Mrs Sue Cook, University Legal Adviser
Mr Mark Ames, Head of Student Services
Mr John Still, Estates
Ms Mo Kiziewicz, Head of Learning Support Service
Ms Philippa Madeley, Students Union

Terms of Reference

In liaison with the Student Experience and Strategy Committee and Advisory Committee on Disability as appropriate:

1. To be responsible for co-ordination and monitoring of the implementation of the management strategy for SENDA. This will include overall responsibility for management of the departmental audit process and monitoring of the implementation of the action plans arising from that process;
2. To prioritise the items of expenditure identified by the Disability Access Audit for inclusion within the University's financial planning exercise;
3. To consider any other actions and prioritisation of expenditure required of the University to comply with the requirements of SENDA* and to monitor the implementation of those actions following their approval by the Executive Committee.

The Steering Group will:

1. report direct to Executive Committee and consult academic and service departments as necessary. Minutes of its meetings will also be submitted to the Student Experience and Strategy Committee and Advisory Committee on Disability for information;
2. benchmark its activities against other HEIs and take full advantage of advice from external regulatory bodies.

Useful Documentation

• SENDA Policy Statement and Implementation Strategy
• Briefing Paper
• Application to fund departmental adjustment for students with disabilities
• Departmental Disability Coordinators
• Departmental Self-Audit Guidance Notes
• Academic Department Self-Audit Tool in PDF (requires Acrobat Reader to view) or Word format
• Administrative/Service Department Self-Audit Tool in PDF (requires Acrobat Reader to view) or Word format

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