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Tomorrow at 10am at The Courts in Carlisle, Cumbria County Council’s Cabinet will approve its new Accessibility Strategy.  Once approved the strategy will be distributed to all schools to support them in developing their own access plans.

Statutory Guidance from the Department for Education and Skills on developing and supporting improved access to education for students with a disability sets out the key principles for an inclusive education service.  These are:

• Improvements in access to the curriculum
• Physical improvements to increase access to education and associated services
• Improvements in the provision of information in a range of formats for disabled pupils  

Cumbria County Council’s Local Education Service has produced it’s strategy  ‘Inclusive Cumbria’ which outlines the action planned to develop services for special needs education, physical access, social inclusion and the needs of vulnerable and minority groups. The Accessibility Strategy is an integral part of this action.  County Councillor Joan Stocker, Cabinet Spokesperson for Education says

“This Strategy has been developed after wide consultation with schools, specialist services, parents and voluntary agencies and I am very pleased with the amount of people who responded to the consultation.  One of the Council’s key priorities is to promote and further develop an inclusive education system in the area.  We recognise the positive work already taking place in our schools promoting social and educational inclusion however with more support and resources this County can provide more inclusive learning opportunities for its pupils.  Schools alone cannot be expected to have sole responsibility on achieving inclusive education.  We want to encourage mainstream and special schools and others to come together to support each other and pupils with special educational needs.”