1.3.1 Inclusion

Overview

All young people should have the opportunity to participate in visits. Educational visits can provide valuable learning and personal development opportunities, and settings should take reasonable steps to ensure these experiences are accessible to all participants.

Under the Equality Act 2010, it is unlawful to discriminate against individuals because of protected characteristics such as disability, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, pregnancy or maternity. Schools must make reasonable adjustments to prevent participants from being placed at a substantial disadvantage.

Planning for Inclusion

Inclusive practice should be considered from the earliest stages of planning and be anticipatory. You should anticipate challenges when designing visits and must make reasonable adjustments to ensure activities, venues and arrangements allow participants to take part alongside their peers.

Planning should consider:

• Individual needs, abilities and coping strategies
• Accessibility of venues and activities
• Appropriate staffing levels or specialist support where required
• Emergencies

Assumptions should not be made based on labels or diagnoses. Where appropriate, the SENCO and other relevant staff should be involved early in the planning process.

Any adjustments should support participation without compromising safety or the core purpose of the activity. Where full inclusion is not possible, decisions must be based on clear and justifiable reasons rather than unfair discrimination.

Care should also be taken to avoid indirect discrimination, for example scheduling visits that unintentionally exclude participants due to religious observance or other protected characteristics.

Residential Visits and Facilities

Residential visits require particular attention to privacy, dignity and safety. Students and parents or carers should have opportunities to discuss accommodation arrangements where appropriate.

Where participants may feel uncomfortable using shared facilities, reasonable and practical alternatives should be considered that avoid embarrassment or stigma.

For visits involving home stays, host families should be carefully selected and assessed to ensure that placements are safe and supportive for all participants. Personal information about students should only be shared with appropriate consent.

Behaviour and Participation

Excluding a participant from a visit should be a last resort. Decisions should involve discussion with relevant staff and parents or carers.

In some cases, behaviour may present risks that cannot be safely managed. Where behaviour is linked to a protected characteristic, care must be taken to ensure decisions are fair, proportionate and part of a wider behaviour management process.

If exclusion is unavoidable, alternative learning opportunities should be considered. Educational visits should not be used as a reward or punishment unrelated to their educational purpose.

Supporting Positive Experiences

Inclusive planning helps ensure that educational visits are safe, welcoming and beneficial for all learners. By considering individual needs early and working collaboratively with staff, families and participants, settings can provide meaningful opportunities for everyone to take part.

FAQs

Some colleagues feel that a particular child’s behaviour should preclude them from attending the planned residential, but others disagree. Who is right?

Visit attendance should not be used as a reward or punishment. Residentials often offer the opportunity for students who struggle in classroom situations to shine. Relationships with teachers can improve dramatically and expected behaviours may not materialise. The key to a successful visit is good planning, so consider any support you might need to put in place and ensure that expectations and consequences are clearly set out beforehand.

We are planning to visit an activity centre for a day of adventurous activities. One of the students in the class is a wheelchair user and we are worried that they won’t be able to access the activities we want to do. How should we approach this?

All young people have a right to participate, but not all activities and providers are the same. Anticipate the inclusion of the wheelchair user and, before booking, get in touch with the provider and ask questions about their approach to supporting students with these additional needs. Although the provider is legally bound to make reasonable adjustments to enable participation, different locations/activities lend themselves to inclusion better than others. Some providers also have access to more specialised equipment and resources that enable full participation, and you should explore more specialist providers depending on the needs of the student.