Disability

[love381]

A friend has told me that I need to have a disablity policy (have one) and also a plan of how I am going to change my property in order to cater for disablities (wheelchair access etc). At present I don't PLAN to change my property as I have no need to (no children that require this sort of access). CONFUSED!!??!! x

[naartjies]

It all sounds lovely in theory, but I don't have the money to start changing my house

[love381]

I agree, money has to be the first issue, surely it would cost a fair amount. I know from being a Governor at my sons school that they've had to sort the Disability policies out and state what they'd do IF they accept a child who cannot go upstairs (which on the policy is simply move the upstairs class downstairs and a downstairs class upstairs - obviously with risk assessments etc). Wonder if this'll be acceptable, although, where would I put the info - at the bottom of my Disability policy? x

[sarak31]

Used to work in employment law in my 'previous life' so know a little about this - although has been a while! As I understand the DDA (Disability Discrimination Act which is the legislation that applies here) companies / employers (which is us in this case) have to ensure that the premises and services are equally accessible by all and we have to make "reasonable adjustments" to ensure this is the case. The key word is here "reasonable". In our case I'd take this to mean :
- reasonable in terms of financial constraints - if you haven't the money and it would place a strain on the finances of the business, and by consequence of this the security of your families home / finances, then it would not be reasonable to require changes to the property.
- reasonable in terms of demand - if you ensure that your advertising is equally accessible to all - ie. in children's centers, through central places like the internet and childrens information services which I think everyone does anyway - and there is no demand then it does not seem reasonable to install ramps, stair lifts etc unneccessarily up front.

You get the idea - it's all about what would be reasonable. I think for our situations running the business from home it would be reasonable not to make changes for the sake of it - an advantage of the service we provide is it can be personal, I think its reasonable to argue that we make no changes in advance of enquiries. Any changes for disability that we make should be in response to specific children - eg. if we have an enquiry from a child in a wheelchair we could enquire into the cost of ramps and funding available for this (we may still decide the cost is too high for the business to reasonably carry), or if we have an enquiry from a child hard of hearing we may start to learn sign language etc etc.

Hope helps!

[Hebs]

my disability policy does say due to the layout of my home i am unable to provide care for children in wheelchairs due to

A, toilet is upstairs, i wouldnt be able to physically carry an older child upstairs to the toilet, (no space for toilet downstairs)
B, the welfare of the other children (re B!)

I did discuss this with ofsted and she said it was not possible to mind children in wheelchairs due to the above and as i have (in past) provided childcare for disabiled mobile children i would not be classed as discriminating against those in wheelchairs, if i could get a toilet in downstairs i would not have an issue in providing childcare for children in wheelchairs x

[sarah707]

Used to work in employment law in my 'previous life' so know a little about this - although has been a while! As I understand the DDA (Disability Discrimination Act which is the legislation that applies here) companies / employers (which is us in this case) have to ensure that the premises and services are equally accessible by all and we have to make "reasonable adjustments" to ensure this is the case. The key word is here "reasonable". In our case I'd take this to mean :
- reasonable in terms of financial constraints - if you haven't the money and it would place a strain on the finances of the business, and by consequence of this the security of your families home / finances, then it would not be reasonable to require changes to the property.
- reasonable in terms of demand - if you ensure that your advertising is equally accessible to all - ie. in children's centers, through central places like the internet and childrens information services which I think everyone does anyway - and there is no demand then it does not seem reasonable to install ramps, stair lifts etc unneccessarily up front.

You get the idea - it's all about what would be reasonable. I think for our situations running the business from home it would be reasonable not to make changes for the sake of it - an advantage of the service we provide is it can be personal, I think its reasonable to argue that we make no changes in advance of enquiries. Any changes for disability that we make should be in response to specific children - eg. if we have an enquiry from a child in a wheelchair we could enquire into the cost of ramps and funding available for this (we may still decide the cost is too high for the business to reasonably carry), or if we have an enquiry from a child hard of hearing we may start to learn sign language etc etc.

Hope helps!

An excellent reply!

This is exactly what we need to do... we need to show that we are prepared to make reasonable adjustments...



This is a

[maisiemog]

Ofsted had no problems when I said I wouldn't be able to care for a child in a wheelchair. You come into my house through a very narrow hallway. It's tight as it is and there is no way that a wheelchair would be able to negotiate it. And we rent so couldn't make any alterations necessary as it is!

Willing to take on any other form of disability though. In fact I would quite like to as all my previous work experience has been supporting people with disabilities so I really feel I could do a good job of it!

[singlewiththree]

I filled in an accessability audit.

There is a thread about it here
http://www.childmindinghelp.co.uk/fo...d.php?p=237726

[Mookins]

omg ... i dont have a disibility policy....will do that today...ive said on a fis form that i can care for disabled children as i have a downstairs toilet....and a tiny step leading ointo the house front and back....perhaps i should change it then after reading the acess audit... i dont think it would be majorly hard to make a ramp for the tiny steps and perhaps add hand rail near the toilet adding them to hallways isnt an issue either

our doorways fron and back are about 750mm as are kitchen and lounge the downstairs loo door opens outwrds so could possibly turn round in a wheelchair in there but would have trouble getting in there due to a 72omm wide doorway although have just crouched down in toilet (room) and our sink there is actually quite low...never noticed this before

perhaps i should just say cannot accomodate, garden wouldnt be a problem as soon as patio and pathwy is done...although we have gravel at end oof the garden in the seperate wildlife area which could cause lots of problems

would love to have anyone be able to come but its just not gonna happen