Citation and commencement

1. These Regulations may be cited as the Education (Disability Statements for Further Education Institutions) Regulations 1996 and shall come into force on 31st July 1996.

Information to be contained in disability statements

2. Information contained in a disability statement about the provision of facilities for education made by the institution in respect of disabled persons shall cover the following matters-

(a)the policies of the institution relating to the provision of facilities for education;

(b)the names of a member or members of the staff with special responsibility for disabled persons;

(c)admission arrangements;

(d)educational facilities and support including-

(i)academic and curriculum support;

(ii)relevant staff expertise;

(iii)technology and equipment available;

(e)arrangements for handling complaints and (where applicable) appeals in respect of any of the matters mentioned in paragraphs (c) and(d) above or (f) to (h) below;

(f)additional support or special arrangements during examinations and assessments;

(g)facilities and support associated with the matters mentioned in sub-paragraph (d) above including counselling and welfare arrangements;

(h)physical access to educational and other facilities;

Intervals at which disability statements must be published

3.-(1) The interval between the first occasion on which a condition requiring the governing body to publish a disability statement is imposed ("the condition date") and the date of publication shall be such that-

(a)where the condition date is on or before 1st August 1996, the first disability statement is published by 1st December after the condition date, and

(b)in any other case, the first disability statement is published by 1st October in the financial year following that in which the condition date fell.

(2) The interval between the publication of subsequent disability statements shall be such that each statement is published by 1st October in the year following the year in which the previous statement was required to be published.

(3) In this regulation "financial year" means the period of twelve months ending with 31st March in any year.

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

Section 5(7A) of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 provides that financial support by a further education funding council to the governing body of an institution within the further education sector must be subject to a condition requiring the institution to publish disability statements at prescribed intervals. A disability statement is a statement containing information of a prescribed description about the provision of facilities for education made by the institution in respect of disabled persons.

These regulations prescribe the information which must be contained in a disability statement (regulation 2) and the intervals at which such statements should be published (regulation 3).