Reasonable adjustments tracking software: from agreement to review

Most providers already keep a list of reasonable adjustments somewhere: a spreadsheet, a column in the student record system or a folder of agreements. The hard part is not the list. It is knowing whether each adjustment reached the right tutor, happened every week and still helps. Inclusion Studio is not a separate reasonable adjustments tracker. It is reasonable adjustments tracking software built from the steps of one support journey, so the adjustment, the delivery record and the review stay together. This page explains how, what exists today and what is in development.

What should reasonable adjustments software do?

Reasonable adjustments software should help you show the whole life of an adjustment, not only that it was written down. Under section 20 of the Equality Act 2010, the duty to make adjustments covers changing how things are done, dealing with physical features and providing auxiliary aids, and a disabled person cannot generally be asked to pay for them. Our guide to reasonable adjustments in further education explains the duty, including why it is anticipatory. The social model of disability is a useful way to frame it: the question is what is getting in the learner’s way.

In practice, a useful tracker answers six questions for every adjustment:

• What did the learner say would help, in their words?
• What was agreed, what was not, and why?
• Who needs to know, and have they been told?
• Did it happen this week?
• If it did not, how was it put right?
• Does it still help, and should it be kept, changed or stopped?

How does Inclusion Studio track an adjustment, step by step?

1. Capture. A learner, tutor or employer raises a support request, or the need comes from transition information. Staff hear what helps in the learner’s own words through learner voice. The learner does not have to bring a diagnosis to be heard.
2. Agree. Each adjustment goes into the learner’s support plan with a named owner and a review date. Requests that could not be agreed are recorded with the reason, and so is any disagreement from the learner.
3. Share. Tutors and assessors see the adjustments that apply to the learners they teach, in short, plain language. An apprenticeship employer contact sees only the workplace adjustments and their own actions through employer collaboration. Permissions are enforced on the server, not by hiding buttons. See permissions and roles.
4. Deliver. Staff record each adjustment as delivered or missed through delivery tracking. The aim is a quick record, not extra paperwork.
5. Recover. When an adjustment is missed, the reason and the recovery step are recorded through missed support recovery, and the learner is told what happens next.
6. Review. At a review, the learner is asked whether the adjustment helped, and it is kept, changed or stopped. A controlled evidence export can show the trail when someone needs it.

Why not just use a reasonable adjustments tracker spreadsheet?

A spreadsheet can work well for a small team, and our comparison with spreadsheets says when it is the right choice. Spreadsheets struggle in three places. They rarely record whether an adjustment happened, only that it exists. They are hard to share safely, because the whole sheet often travels when a tutor needs one line. And they do not prompt a review, so adjustments outlive their usefulness or quietly stop. Tracking adjustments inside the support journey addresses all three.

How do adjustments reach tutors, assessors and employers?

Each person sees only what their role needs. A tutor sees, for example, “Share slides 24 hours before the session” and “Allow the learner to present to the tutor alone”, with the owner and review date. They do not see the learner’s history or documents unless their role allows it. See tutors and assessors.

For apprentices, many adjustments happen at work. The employer sees the workplace adjustments the learner has agreed to share and the actions assigned to them, and nothing else. Our guides to working with employers on adjustments and reasonable adjustments for apprentices cover consent and the first conversation. Some workplace support may also be available through Access to Work.

What about exams and assessments?

Exam access arrangements and apprenticeship assessment adjustments follow their own rules and are decided by the people responsible under those rules. Inclusion Studio can hold the agreed arrangement and its review trail alongside the learner’s other adjustments, but it does not make or approve access arrangements. See exam access arrangements and end-point assessment reasonable adjustments.

What is in the prototype today, and what is being built?

The clickable prototype shows a support plan view and a review form with five fictional learners. Changes are kept in browser memory only. Delivery tracking, missed support recovery, employer views and evidence export are in development for the pilot, using synthetic data only. No real learner data is held. Optional AI can suggest wording for a plan, but drafts are labelled and a person reviews before anything is saved. See AI drafts.

Who is this for?

Inclusion leads and ALS managers who need one view of adjustments across the organisation. Tutors and assessors who need a short, clear list. Learners, who should be able to see and challenge what was agreed. Apprenticeship employers, who need practical workplace actions and nothing more. It is designed for FE colleges, independent training providers and adult community learning services alike, and you can describe the process in a learning support policy.

What does this look like in practice? (fictional example)

This is a fictional example. An apprentice says long verbal instructions at work are hard to follow and written steps help. The assessor records this in the learner’s words. The plan agrees two adjustments: written task instructions from the line manager, and an extra ten minutes in progress reviews. The learner asks for a quiet room for all training, which the employer cannot offer every day, so the plan records a quiet room on two days a week and notes the learner’s view. The employer contact sees only the written-instructions action. One week the instructions are missed during a busy shift; the line manager records it and agrees to send them by message the next morning. At review, the learner says the written steps help and the extra time is no longer needed, so one adjustment is kept and one stopped.

Related guides and next steps

Use the free reasonable adjustments agreement template or the adjustment ideas finder to start. For the wider picture, see SEND and ALS support and the pilot page.