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Toolkit: Quality Indicators for
Assessment Needs
SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION
During 2003, the Funding For Learners Division in the
Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning Department in
the Scottish Executive carried out a review of learner
funding. The terms of reference for the review were to
identify gaps and anomalies in the provision of funding to
post-16 individual learners, and to recommend changes that
will improve the coherence, equity, and effectiveness of
overall provision. The final report of the review can be
found at
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/ETLL/FFL/review.asp
As part of the continuous output of the review, the
Disabled Students Stakeholder Group was established to
bring together the range of stakeholders involved in the
information, advice, guidance and delivery of student
support, and to consider and address issues relating to the
support available to learners with disability related
additional needs in further and higher education.
One of the initial issues the stakeholder group
considered was the needs assessment process, with a
particular focus on higher education students applying for
the Disabled Students Allowance (DSA) from the Student
Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS). The group recognised
that students applying for DSA often face delays in
receiving a needs assessment and consequently their DSA
support. The delays are caused by a backlog of applications
for needs assessments, mainly due to there being only a
limited number of accredited and recognised assessors whose
reports are accepted in the current process. SAAS currently
only accept assessment reports from a small number of
sources, including the four Scottish access centres and a
limited number of HEIs. However, the current list of HEIs
has no obvious process or accreditation system for
institutions to follow to allow them to become recognised
assessors.
The Toolkit of Quality Indicators for Needs Assessments
has therefore been developed to offer institutions or
centres a route by which to become validated as assessors
recognised by SAAS. These quality indicators are a
significant step forward in improving the coherence and
robustness of the assessment process, and the confidence
which all stakeholders can have in it. Our aim is to
establish an agreed quality assurance framework under which
assessments can be carried out by a wider range of
assessors, including college and university staff. The
ability to undertake in-house assessments will clearly have
an impact on the efficiency of the DSA process.
When making recommendations about study aids, strategies
and support in needs assessment reports, assessors should
consider the relationship between the student's individual
support needs and the institution's responsibility to make
its courses and provision as accessible as possible. An
individual allowance, such as the DSA, is intended to meet
those support needs that remain even after the institution
has fulfilled its part. This distinction has become more
apparent as a consequence of the Disability Discrimination
Act Part IV and is likely to result in a gradual shift of
the dividing line between what should be available or
provided by the institution and what is still supplied via
the individual allowance.
The needs assessment should always take into account the
aspects of support that the student's host institution
will/can provide.
We do recognise that whilst many institutions will be
keen to undertake their own in-house assessments as soon as
possible, some may prefer to continue to make use of the
access centres or other institutions' facilities,
particularly for students with complex requirements and
multiple disabilities.
The intention and focus of the Toolkit is very much on
the assessment process for higher education students
applying for DSAs. However, it is envisaged that assessors
should also be able to use the Toolkit to undertake
assessments for students in further education. We believe
that the Toolkit will also be useful for institutions when
undertaking assessments for students who are ineligible for
DSA, as it will identify the support strategies and study
aids which will still need to be put in place.
This Toolkit should be implemented by disability
advisers and institutional staff, however it is our
intention that the institutions or centres themselves, and
not individual members of staff, will be registered and
accredited.
In terms of the actual DSA application process there
will be very little change. Students and academic staff
will still have to complete the relevant parts of the
yellow DSA application form, as normal, and send this to
SAAS.
If an institution meets the requirements to become a
recognised assessment centre, as set out in the Toolkit of
Quality Indicators, then SAAS can accept their needs
assessment reports. In these cases, there will be no need
to direct any students to any of the access centres for
further referral.
If an institution has not been accredited as an approved
assessment centre then SAAS will continue to refer those
students to one of the access centres for a needs
assessment.
We will be piloting this Toolkit from January 2005 to
January 2006, across Scotland, with some institutions
registering immediately, some noting intent to register,
and others not being involved at this stage.
The Toolkit consists of:
Section 1: Introduction and Flow Diagram
Section 2: The framework, which sets out the quality
indicators for each element of the needs assessment
process. (Good practice examples will be available for
participating institutions prior to the start of the pilot
phase).
Section 3: A pro-forma needs assessment report which
institutions may wish to adopt or adapt for their own
use.
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