What do we mean by reasonable?

Many students worry about practice placements, and this is likely to be just as true for disabled students when adjustments may be required to ensure they can practise safely and effectively. With reasonable adjustments in any setting, forward planning and early communication are vital. 

There are 3 key questions that may arise for a practice educator when considering reasonable adjustments for students in the practice setting.

Reasonable adjustment is defined as practical effective measures that do not cause excessive cost or disruption to the practice setting or employer (Equality Act 2010). So, if an aspect of your practice setting—including policies, ways of working, physical premises or the way you provide information—might be a barrier for disabled learners, you need to consider if there is a reasonable way to eliminate these barriers.

Reasonable adjustments are designed to minimise the disadvantages experienced by persons with a disability and are mandatory requirements based on the Equality Act (2010).

These links will take you to the NMC or HCPC websites where you can explore this further: 

When deciding whether an adjustment is reasonable, the following principles from the Equality Act 2010 can be helpful to consider:

Reasonable adjustments can occur prior to or during student practice placement learning experiences. It is important to consider if there are any barriers to practice education in advance of any specific request to do so. This is referred to as 'anticipatory adjustment'.

Disabled people will each experience disability differently and students may need individual reasonable adjustments in different contexts (depending on the competencies or proficiencies that need to be achieved). As a result, reasonable adjustments need to be personalised. However, personalised reasonable adjustments cannot be implemented until after disclosure. Disclosure is discussed a little later in this resource.

You can listen to the following health and disability case study (also hosted on the HCPC website). The audio clip gives the perspective of a university tutor supporting a student to undertake practice placement and gives insight into anticipatory adjustments and personalised reasonable adjustment. The case study is 6 minutes long, placement perspective begins at 1 min 35secs. Perspective from tutor of supporting a disabled student to undertake placement.

In some situations students may need support to recognise they may potentially require disability-related adjustments.

What should I do or how do I raise an issue I think a student might not aware of, or that has not been previously identified? 

Effective reasonable adjustments require discussion and collaboration involving the student, academic tutor (this may be the academic assessor, personal tutor, placement tutor or other designated educational institute staff member) along with the practice educator, and possibly other staff within the organisation such as the Practice Education Facilitator (PEF) or practice placement co-ordinator.

The following case study (also hosted on the HCPC  website) provides an insight into how students view disclosure; the challenges and benefits.

The case study is an audio clip, 4 minutes in length. Click here to access Disabled physiotherapy student discussing disclosure.