DISABLED STUDENTS STAKEHOLDER GROUP
Public Petition PE 1180
Background
1. Public Petitions Committee considered a petition from Mr and Mrs Wallace regarding their son Thomas on 9th September.
2. The petition states that there is no local further education provision for Thomas in the Dumfries and Galloway area which can meet Thomas's complex needs. The Council originally agreed in principle to support Thomas's placement at a residential college in England. However at a later Council meeting when the funding was discussed again the Council decided not to support Thomas on the grounds that he was now over 18 years old and no longer the responsibility of the Education Department.
3. The family believe that this situation would not have occurred in England. The family are calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to ensure that students with complex needs are supported in achieving further education placements and that appropriate funding mechanisms are provided to enable such placements to be taken up.
4. A copy of the petition can be found on the Scottish Parliament website at http://epetitions.scottish.parliament.uk/view_backgroundinfo.asp?PetitionID=%20245
Petition Committee
5. At the Committee, members discussed :
- transition arrangements from school to college;
- the mapping study;
- local authorities needing to share expertise and opportunities;
- reasons behind the different levels of local authority provision and a way to measure provision;
- the Equal Opportunities Report and progress regarding the recommendations; and
- the provision with colleges in Scotland.
6. A copy of the official minutes from the Committee meeting can be found via http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/committees/petitions/or-08/pu08-1302.htm#Col1024
Response from the DSSG
7. Members from the DSSG are asked to consider the attached draft response to the Committee and provide comments on the draft response by close of play on Friday 7th November.
8. Any amendments to the draft letter will be made and Members will be asked to clear the amended letter at the DSSG meeting on 17th November. Please note that the deadline for responding to the Committee is 21st November.
Mrs Zoe Tough
Assistant Clerk to the Petitions Committee
Scottish Parliament
Edinburgh
EH99 1SP
Dear Mrs Clark,
Thank you for your letter 10 September inviting the views of the Disabled Students Stakeholder Group on the petition (PE1180).
Our response is set out in the paper attached. I hope this deals sufficiently with the points of concern raised by your Committee and the petitioners, Mr and Mrs Wallace.
If the Committee would like to have any further information or assistance, we will be very glad to help.
Yours sincerely,
Kathleen Robertson
Chair of the DSSG
Membership of the DSSG
The Disabled Students Stakeholder Group, established in 2004, consists of a group of stakeholders including representatives from SAAS, Skill Scotland, NUS Scotland, RNIB, RNID, BRITE Initiative, JobCentre Plus, Scottish Further Education Unit, Scottish Funding Council (SFC), Scottish Access Centres, colleges and universities, a range of officials from various Scottish Government Directorates including Social Work and Lifelong Learning; and is chaired by Kathleen Robertson, Scottish Government.
Purpose & Achievements of the DSSG
The DSSG was established to consider and address issues and barriers relating to the support available to learners with disability related needs in colleges and universities.
To date the DSSG have looked at ways to improve the needs assessment process for disabled higher education students. As a result the DSSG have devised a toolkit for ensuring the quality and parity in the needs assessment process by setting out a set of indicators which colleges and universities will have to meet in order to undertake in-house needs assessments which will be accepted by SAAS. This ability to undertake in-house needs assessments will speed up the Disabled Students Allowance (DSA) assessment and application process.
DSSG discussions have resulted in a number of changes to the DSA (an allowance for disabled students higher education students). These include ensuring that the cost of transcription course material into alternative formats will now be met by the DSA; extending the DSA to full and part time self funded post graduate students and improving arrangements for non medical personal helper to students.
During the SFC's consultation on Disabled Students Premium (DSP) Funding the DSSG successfully argued that the basing the DSP allocation on the number of students in receipt of DSA did not actively encourage institutions to become more inclusive (resulting in less DSA applications) as this would in turn lead to less DSP funding. The SFC have taken this concern on board and have now developed a system which is more representative of student inclusiveness and the overall provision of students with disabilities.
The DSSG have also been consulted on a number of pieces of research and reviews such as the Review of the DSA which is being undertaken by the Scottish Government and the Baseline Study of the Current Structures in Place to Support the Assessment of Students' Additional Support Needs which was undertaken by Equality Forward.
Specific Issues Raised in the Petition & DSSG Action
The DSSG have noted the areas of concern raised in both the petition and during the Committee's discussion of the petition.
Local Authorities support arrangements for people with complex needs
While the DSSG has no locus to intervene on how local authorities choose to spend their funding or how they decide their local priorities, the DSSG will directly pass on any examples of best practice in relation to support for people with complex needs to the relevant organisations such as COSLA.
The DSSG recognises the important role Local Authorities and in particular social work has in providing support to people with complex needs so that they can access further educations. That is why the membership of DSSG includes a representative from the Scottish Government's Social Work Directorate. Any discussions and recommendations made by the DSSG in relation to social care will be taken and discussed with the relevant parties by this representative.
The Complex Needs Mapping Study
As Committee members are no doubt aware the Scottish Government and the SFC commissioned the BRITE Initiative, a member of the DSSG, to undertake the Complex Needs mapping study.
BRITE have presented the findings of the Mapping Study to the DSSG at their meeting on 13th November. DSSG members will now consider the study's findings further and have asked the Government and the SFC to update them on progress being made to improve the further education provision for students with complex needs. Both parties have informed the DSSG that they intend to have a full progress report at the next DSSG meeting which is provisionally scheduled to take place in May 2009. Any outstanding issues and areas requiring action from the mapping study will continue to be monitored by the DSSG.
We recognise that this seems like a very long time scale for tackling the issues of concern and therefore in relations to some of the specific issues raised in the study the DSSG has undertaken the following pieces of action:
- established a sub group which will be lead by SAAS to help to develop guidance on the roles and responsibilities of non medical personal helpers, including non college staff, involved in the support of disabled students; and
- discussed amendments which could be made to Partnership Matters [1] to strengthen guidance for students with complex needs. These revision will be submitted to Scottish Ministers for approval in the next few weeks. It is hoped that a revised version of Partnership Matters will be published in the new year.
Improving Support Arrangements for All Students with Additional Support Needs
The DSSG would like to reassure the Committee that they are committed to considering the issues identified during any analysis of the current support arrangements and institutional funding relating to students with additional support needs. There are currently several different pieces of research either taking place or which have just recently been completed, for example Equality Forward's Infrastructure and Base Line Report and the SFC's Needs led Pilot. The Group will be considering the findings from these pieces of work and make proposals and recommendations on future policy and practices as appropriate.
Partnership Matters is a guide to college, local authorities, health boards and voluntary organisations on supporting students with additional support needs. The guidance outlines the roles and responsibilities of partners and provides case studies to highlight good practices.