Disabled Students Stakeholder Group
The stakeholder group consists of representation from the following organisations:
DSSG's remit and further details of the membership can be read here
The group has met several times. Relevant papers from the meetings are available below:
Meeting 1 - 23 January 2004 - Agenda, Minutes of Meeting, Additional Papers
Meeting 2 - 7 April 2004 - Agenda, Minutes of Meeting, Additional Papers
Meeting 3 - 26 May 2004 - Agenda, Minutes of Meeting, Additional Papers
Meeting 4 - 25 August 2004 - Agenda, Minutes of Meeting, Additional Papers
Meeting 5 - 11 January 2005 - Agenda, Minutes of Meeting, Additional Papers
Meeting 6 - 1 March 2005 - Agenda, Minutes of Meeting, Additional Papers
Meeting 7 - 31 May 2005 - Agenda, Minutes of Meeting, Additional Papers
Meeting 8 - 11 October 2005 - Agenda, Minutes of Meeting, Additional Papers
Meeting 9 - 2 March 2006 - Agenda, Minutes of Meeting
Meeting 10 - 18 May 2006 - Agenda, Minutes of Meeting, Additional Papers
Meeting 11 - 2 November 2006 - Agenda and Minutes
Meeting 12 - 14 May 2007 - Agenda, Minutes
Meeting 13 - 8 November 2007 - Agenda, Minutes
Meeting 14 - 22 May 2008 - Agenda, Minutes
Meeting 15 - 13 November 2008 - Agenda, Papers & Presentations, Minutes
Meeting 16 - 21 May 2009 - Agenda, Papers & Presentations
Meeting 17 - 05 Nov 2009 - Agenda, Papers & Presentations
An invitation letter was sent out on the 25 January 2005 to disability advisers and extended learning support co-ordinators inviting their institutions to take part in the pilot of the toolkit for needs assessment.
FE Students with Complex Needs
The Scottish Government and the Scottish Funding Council jointly commissioned the BRITE Initiative to undertake a mapping study of the current provision of further education across Scotland for students with profound and complex needs. You can read the published report here.
A copy of the Scottish Government's response to the report's findings, endorsed by the Scottish Funding Council, is published here.
Partnership Matters
A revised version of Partnership Matters has been published. Partnership Matters is a guidance document which describes the roles and responsibilities of all agencies supporting people with additional support needs who wish to, or are currently studying at Scotland's Colleges or Universities.
Alongside Partnership Matters there are information leaflets for potential and current students of further and higher education, parents and carers which provide an overview of the roles and responsibilities of all the agencies involved in providing the support for people with additional support needs.
Supporting You At College
Supporting You At University
DSSG Sub Groups
A sub-group of the DSSG recently met, to discuss the taking forward of the monitoring and quality enhancement of those assesment centres validated under the toolkit pilot.
- Minutes of the meeting of 27th September 2006.
A sub-group of the DSSG was established, as part of the of the Review DSA, to examine and provide recommendations on the need of having a diagnosis of a disability for the purpose of claiming DSA.
- Agenda of the meeting of January 2008
- Minutes of the meeting of January 2008
- Paper of the meeting of January 2008
- Agenda of the meeting of February 2008
- Minutes of the meeting of February 2008
- Agenda of the meeting of April 2008
- Agenda of the meeting of May 2008
- Minutes of the meeting of May 2008
- Minutes of the meeting of June 2008
- Agenda of the meeting of June 2008
- Minutes of the meeting of August 2008
- Agenda of the meeting of August 2008
- Minutes of the meeting of October 2008
DSSG Workshops
2009 - Presentations, break out discussions summary
Evaluation of the Pilot of the Toolkit of Quality Indicators for Needs Assessment
The aim of this research has been to evaluate the pilot of the Scottish Government's validation policy based on the Toolkit of Quality Indicators for Needs Assessment.
The Toolkit of Quality Indicators was designed by the Disabled Students Stakeholder Group in 2004-05 in response to Scottish students in higher education having to wait unduly long to be assessed for the Disabled Students' Allowance (DSA). The Toolkit and the validation policy were created to offer Scottish universities and colleges a route by which to become validated to assess their students for DSA.
The evaluation of the pilot, conducted by Vit Novotny, a secondee from Equality Forward, is now complete. The final report can be found here.