Do disabled children and young people have equal access to education and childcare?

Inquiry3

YouTube-Here https://www.youtube.com/embed/vtvsOcrmC_I

AN EASY READ VERSION IS AVAILABLE (PDF 758KB)

Information on the inquiry is also available in Microsoft Word format.

The Children, Young People and Education Committee is conducting an inquiry into childcare and education access for disabled children and young people and the extent to which childcare providers, schools and local authorities meet their duties under the Equality Act 2010.

In this inquiry, the Committee would like to understand how children and young people who are neurodivergent, have physical, sensory or learning disabilities are able to access all aspects of education and childcare.

In particular:

• The extent to which children and learners are currently able to access all parts of childcare and education provision, including the way in which the curriculum is taught and extra-curricular activities.
• The extent to which children and young people have been excluded from aspects of education or childcare due to their disability or neurodivergence.
• The extent to which families and children feel that they have been affected by direct, indirect or discrimination arising from disability.
• The impact of any lack of or limited access on a child or young person’s mental health and well-being and educational outcomes.
• The barriers for schools and childcare providers in offering accessible provision
• How well disabled and neurodivergent children and their families are consulted or informed of the choices in education or childcare available to them.
• Whether parents of disabled and neurodivergent children and the children themselves receive effective information and support from local authorities and schools
• Whether disabled and neurodivergent children and parents of disabled and neurodivergent children have the same level of choice as other children and parents and what issues affect choice or school or childcare.
• The extent to which there is adequate provision for children with different types of disabilities.
  
  

This work is being framed within United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Disabled People.

How we gathered our evidence:

Oral Evidence

From May 2023 – December 2023, we held thirteen oral evidence sessions. Further details on each session are available on the meetings tab at the top of this page. On 27th September we held a stakeholder event, one in-person and the other virtual.

Central to the inquiry was lived experience, the Citizen Engagement Team held family interviews with parents, carers and occasionally children. Over 40 families were interviewed. A summary note (PDF 225KB) is available including an easy read (PDF 4MB) and printable version (PDF 18MB).

An online advisory group was also set-up to discuss the evidence received. It met three times to discuss this inquiry and once to feed into the inquiry on education reforms highlighting the issues relating to ALN.

Visits

The Committee visited five schools across Wales, Members talked to staff, pupils, parents, and governors. A note from each visit was produced: School note 1 (PDF 166KB), School note 2 (PDF 163KB), School note 3 (PDF 136KB), School note 4 (PDF 142KB) and School note 5 (PDF 171KB)

The Committee meet with parents, carers and visited organisations, here is a full list and notes from the sessions:

Sparkle focus group session (PDF181KB) – 15th September

Oakhill ASD Childcare focus group session (PDF157KB) – 15th September

Visit to ASD Rainbows (PDF 162KB) – 9th October

Correspondence to Welsh Government

We wrote to the Minister for Economy (PDF 200KB) highlighting the impact on parents’ and carers’ ability to work and we wrote to the Deputy Minister for Climate Change (PDF 198KB) highlighting how a lack of accessible, inclusive and affordable learner travel creates barriers for children and young people and their families to access education and childcare. Responses have been received from the Minister (PDF 176KB) and Deputy Minister (PDF 479KB). Following the change in Cabinet Secretary and Ministerial portfolios, we wrote (PDF 78KB) to the Welsh Government to provide us with any further information or updates that you believe would be useful for us to have to inform our report and conclusions.

Consultation

The Committee launched a call for written evidence on 11 May 2023. The consultation closed on 29 September 2023. All responses have been published.

Inquiry into Education Reforms

The Committee is also conducting a Senedd long inquiry into the implementation of education reforms this includes looking at the implementation of the ALN reforms. Evidence submitted to this inquiry that relates to the ALN system will also be considered as part of the educations reforms inquiry.