I am a carer for my 8 year old daughter I who has a number of medical issues.
I has a number of reasonable adjustments at school and her activities to help her access these. No issues with these at all everyone accepts it.
But I wanted to check that they are allowed to specifiy a specific colour if it’s available. Example; School allow her to wear boots instead of normal school shoes but specifiy that these should be black, and if I cannot get black then Brown or Navy Blue, no other colours are permitted to be worn. Similarly at swimming (which really helps her hip condition) she has a different swimming hat as the one I buy is more comfortable for her, but the leisure centre request that the colour match the colour of the stage she’s currently in i.e shes currently stage 3 yellow so must have a yellow hat.
A local group I’m on for parents of children with SN and disabilities are having me doubt myself with it saying that any adjustment has to be accepted no matter what colour I can get and they cannot refuse these. Does anyone know whose right?
Thanks in advance
Hi.
It all comes down to how anyone interprets “Reasonable adjustments” doesn’t it. What to one seems reasonable, to another can be a major problem.
However, I think you have a perfect case to request I wears a different coloured swimming hat. If the only reason for colour-coding is to identify which group/level she is in then there should be no problem. I am sure they would argue that it is for “safety” so Instructors/life guards can quickly identify someone who is in the wrong area (perhaps deeper water than she should be) but I wouldn’t think that would be considered reasonable if they have sufficient supervision - which they will be required to have anyway.
Have you explained the reasoning to the Leisure Centre Manager? It could very well be seen as ‘indirect discrimination’ if not ‘direct’ unless they can PROVE there is a very clear safety problem. Does she have someone in the water with her when swimming? If so then there is no defence to their dogmatic attitude.
An initial friendly chat might get them to understand the situation with I and get an agreement that hers is a Special Case. Failing that a letter pointing out the apparent discrimination on grounds of her disability would rattle their cage. If you don’t want to do it directly, may I suggest your District Councillor could intervene on your behalf. They will have direct access to senior staff who may take a different attitude once it’s raised officially.
Hope these thoughts help.
@Chris_22081 It was the leisure centre manager that said she needed to wear the colour for her stage/group. I am happy with this as so far I’ve had no issues getting the correct colour.
She’s in a mainstream class as theres no SN swimming classes so there’s no-one in the water with her, and she doesn’t have armbands or anything. There’s up to 6 stages at any time swimming (different levels, some are stage 10, but some as low as Pre-school Stage) they all have their own teacher and each wears a different colour hat to identify which group they belong to - theres no Teachers or Assistants in the water beyond Preschool/White Group. The only extra provision above the hat thing that I has is that her group swims closest to the life guards chair unless there is a preschool/white group at the same time as those children are only 3 or 4 so need to be near the life guard.