Building Schools for the Future and Special Educational Needs (SEN)

Building Schools for the Future (BSF) is the largest single schools capital investment programme for over 50 years. It was launched by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) in 2003, and aims to rebuild or renew each of England’s 3,500 state secondary schools during the 15-year lifetime of the £45 billion programme.

Alongside building work, information and communication technology (ICT) represents a huge part of the vision for our schools.

Accessible ICT can support every SEN pupil

AbilityNet is already working at a strategic level with Becta and other SEN focused organisations to prepare the SEN community’s response and guidance to BSF. This is a wonderful opportunity to get things right at the design stage.

We are also working directly with a number of local authorities, helping them to get their ICT visions and output specifications just right in terms of ICT accessibility.

In addition, we are developing implementation plans with preferred bidders in a number of local authorities. Our aim is to ensure that when new ICT solutions are put in place, they will exclude no one.

Accessibility covers all aspects of ICT provision, including your virtual learning environments, the computers being put in place and teaching solutions such as interactive whiteboards.

If ICT accessibility is considered throughout the BSF process, then this initiative represents a once in a lifetime opportunity to advance the access and opportunities for disabled learners for years to come. We really must not let this chance pass us by!

A need to get involved

Just as BSF is a wonderful opportunity, it also comes with huge potential pitfalls. If the needs of pupils with disabilities and SEN are overlooked in the planning stages of BSF projects, there is a serious risk that some pupils will be left behind. Innovative ICT solutions will be put in place which are wholly inaccessible to disabled students and so become huge barriers for those already in the greatest need.

To ensure that the needs of these pupils are fully addressed, we are pushing for key SEN stakeholders to be become involved with this process on a local level. Sencos and local authority inclusion professionals should find out more about BSF in their area and ensure that the needs of children with disabilities and SEN are being considered right through the process and as early as possible.

Supporting guidance and articles

For more information on how and why to get accessibility right under BSF please have a look at our Essential Guide and articles recently published in the SEN press:

BSF, ICT and SEN and essential guide (PDF 496KB).

Building in Access – May 2007 (PDF 2MB) – Special Children Magazine (subscription enquiries to sghose@questpub.co.uk)

ICT accessibility: why SENCOs need to start lobbying now – May 2007 (PDF 48KB) Senco Update (subscription enquiries to info@optimuspub.co.uk)

Chance of a lifetime for IT in schools – August 2007 (PDF 324KB) Ability Magazine (subscription enquiries to john.lamb@abilitymagazine.org.uk)

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Consultancy Services - How AbilityNet can help

AbilityNet’s years of experience working with children, schools, local authorities and IT suppliers is available to support you in a number of ways:

helping you to understand and accommodate your SEN pupils’ needs
illustrating the enabling potential of ICT for SEN pupils
providing good practice guidelines on accessible ICT
undertaking school audits to determine local needs
advising on core access equipment all schools should have
auditing learning environments for accessibility and providing design guidance
reviewing hardware and software for accessibility before major purchases
providing training at all levels around accessibility issues and assistive technology
helping you to ensure that the needs of SEN pupils don’t slip off this busy agenda.

If you are a local authority, we can work with you at all stages in the process to ensure the needs of your SEN pupils are considered fully throughout - including preparing “Strategy for Change” and business case documents, through to procurement and on-going relationships with suppliers.

If you are an ICT supplier bidding for BSF contracts, we can do a great deal to help strengthen your tenders, from providing training for your team around assistive technology and accessibility issues, right through to working as your SEN partner throughout the delivery of your contract. We’ll help you to ensure that all your offerings meet the expectations of the local authorities and are Disability Discrimination Act compliant.

To talk through the consultancy options available please contact AbilityNet on 0800 269545 or email education@abilitynet.org.uk

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