Gloucester House

Disability Access Plan

(Written in accordance with: Disability Discrimination Act – 1995, The Equality Act 2010 and section 69 of the Children and Families Act 2014)

A statement of vision and values:

Gloucester House forms part of the Specialist Schools Service of the Tavistock Clinic and is managed by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust. It is a specialist school and CAMHS team which provides education and clinical services for up to 21 pupils aged 5-14 years who have social, emotional and mental health difficulties, often alongside other learning difficulties such as specific language or literacy difficulties and sometimes more general learning difficulties.

Baseline records show that all pupils are underachieving when they start at the Gloucester House. Many of the pupils who attend are from socially disadvantaged backgrounds, some of whom have experienced severe deprivation or trauma/abuse in their early lives. The pupils come from both inner and outer London boroughs. Gloucester House aims to provide a safe and nurturing environment and an effectively integrated educational and therapeutic approach in order to promote the overall development of primary age and early secondary pupils with social, emotional, and mental health needs. All of the pupils at Gloucester House have an EHCP, some pupils are looked after or adopted, and many have had multi-agency involvement prior to attending Gloucester House.

Children and young people at Gloucester House have full time education together with a package of clinical treatment, which may include individual or group work. All families have a clinical case coordinator and Parents and Carers are offered 1:1 and/or family interventions or group sessions as appropriate. The case coordinator also links with the wider professional network in the community. Placements are often between 1-3 years and Gloucester House works with the referring authority in identifying next placements supporting transition and integration. The school is able to offer long-term placements as required.

Gloucester House provides an integrated health and education service within a single setting. Gloucester House is led by a Headteacher and a Clinical Lead. The multi-disciplinary team includes teachers and progress support workers, specialist nurses, a psychiatrist and child psychotherapists, art therapists and a family therapist, occupational therapist and a speech and language therapist. The service also has access to Educational Psychology when indicated.

Information re pupil needs:

All children at Gloucester House have EHC Plans. All our children have EHC Plans for SEMH. Some pupils have additional needs. These may include: 

Pupils needs	Areas we have training, experience & which are often present in a proportion of our pupils
Attention Deficit Disorder	√
Autism	√
Social, emotional and mental health difficulties	All
Facial Disfiguration
Hearing Impaired
Learning Difficulties	√
Medical Needs
Speech, Language and Communication Difficulties	√
Visual Impairment

We work with Local authority Specialists to support with needs with which we do not have internal expertise.

The Self Evaluation Framework and the Gloucester House Development Plan provide detail of audit and subsequent planning dovetailing this Access Plan and incorporating future aims, curriculum development, attendance and exclusions. Development planning has been done in consultation with all staff. Individual Integrated Care Plans address needs identified in the EHCPs.

Through our Gloucester House School Pupil Parliament  and regular questionnaires we gather views from all our pupils on improvements that would benefit Gloucester House in terms of disability access. We also gather advice from carers/parents, local authorities and our multi-disciplinary team. 

Our staff training takes into account the requirements of the DDA, the Equality Act and our Disability Access Plan. Issues of equality and making reasonable adjustments through child centred planning, to meet the children’s individual needs, are central tenets of our work.

We have a staff training programme to support staff’s ability to meet individual pupils’ needs but also for the complex mental health needs of our pupils which present an ongoing challenge for staff in our service. 

These are addressed through this plan and our other development documents.

We work with our pupils to broaden their horizons in terms of definitions of disability. This is done through PHSCE Schemes of Work, other curriculum activities and other informal and formal structures.

Focus: To improve the physical environment of Gloucester House to increase access to education and associated services for disabled pupils, parents/carers and visitors. 

	Target		Action		Lead	Timescale	Estimated Cost
Short term	To ensure class displays are tailored for the needs of the pupils and include information needed for learning plus celebration of achievements but that sensory overload is taken into account in terms of volume of display.		Training and time in curriculum meeting For display to stimulate learning and celebrate children’s achievements. To consider quality of display during learning walks. To involve children in display work		HT	Summer/Aut 25	Time
Medium term	To continue to build on partnerships between health and education within Gloucester House and between different elements of the multi-disciplinary team.	   	Continue to work on roles and responsibilities of the different members of the team. Continue with structures to support understanding from different perspectives. Staff CDP slots for support staff, sometimes teachers, sometimes all staff. Concentration and focus on INSET training.		SLT and wider team	Academic year 25/26
	To develop Gloucester House external environment	 	Plans to be developed for move to new site		SLT with Tavi ELT & SC	Academic year 25/26
Long Term	To develop Gloucester House external environment.	  		To continue with plans for relocation in line with Trust objectives. To continue with cycle of repairs and redecoration. To involve children through Pupil Parliament in the cleaning and maintenance of the building.	HT/ Steering Committee & estates	Academic year 25/26	Time

Focus: Curriculum – To develop increased access to (participation in) the curriculum for children with disabilities and SEN.

Short/ Medium Term	To embed the multi disciplinary aspects of the curriculum – e.g. sensory circuits /use of visuals etc		Work with SALT/OT & clinical lead	Clinical lead	Aut 25
Medium Term	To involve OT in development of PE and handwriting	   	OT to work with Clinical Lead and HT to incorporate OT as part of PE and handwriting POS	HT/Clinical lead	Academic year 25/26

Focus: To improve the provision of information for disabled pupils where it is provided in writing for pupils who are not disabled.

	Target		Action	Lead	Timescale	Estimated Cost
Medium Term	To support access to text for non readers	    	Visual timetables to be displayed in class. Use colourful semantics and widget to ensure access for all in reading and increase pupil independence	HT/ Clinical lead	Ongoing
Long Term		