Resources and the DDA
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| Resources and the DDA |
Education institutions need to ensure that they
have appropriate resources in place to both carry out their DDA duties to make
reasonable adjustments and to implement their Disability Equality Scheme and
related action plans. The DED represents a good opportunity for organisations
to consider how they allocate general resources across the institution to
improve disability equality and accessibility. The Employers’ Forum on
Disability indicates that, in practice, the cost of most reasonable adjustments
is very low (generally less than £100).
Different funding arrangements exist in the
different sectors and in each country, although each assume that colleges,
universities and adult community learning providers will invest some of their
funding made generally available to support the implementation of the DDA. In
England, the Learning and Skills Council funds provision for students within
the FE system. Different arrangements apply to further education, adult
community learning, work-based learning, independent specialist colleges and
school sixth forms. These arrangements are being reviewed. The allocation to
organisations assumes that they will provide the support and make the
reasonable adjustments that individuals require from within their general
allocations. Although, where higher levels of support are required or the costs
of support or adjustments are high, FE, ACL and WBL providers can utilise
additional learning support (ALS). ALS is for direct support for individuals,
over and above that which is normally provided in a standard learning programme
that leads to their learning goals.
In Scotland, the Scottish Funding Council funds
provision for students within FE. Colleges receive additional weightings to
their teaching funding grant based on the number of disabled students who
require additional support. For students in mainstream courses requiring
Extended Learning Support (ELS) to help them access the course, the college
will receive a weighting of 1.5 per student. For students on ‘special’
programmes (which are designed specifically for students with learning
disabilities), the weighting is increased to 1.8. Although such funding is not
specifically earmarked for individual students, colleges are expected to use
this funding to put in place appropriate support measures.
The Scottish Funding Council has recently
developed proposals to broaden this system of support by developing a ‘needs-led’
model of funding. This will mean that funding is allocated to colleges on the
basis of the number of students with ‘additional support needs’,
including, for example, those experiencing domestic problems or language
barriers, rather than only those with specific impairments or conditions. This
process will be piloted in a number of colleges in Scotland over the academic
year 2007–08.
For further education students, it is expected
that the college will meet the majority of their needs through institutional
funding (see above). However, where necessary, some individual funding can be
accessed from the college through the Additional Support Needs for Learning
Allowance which is not income-assessed and is intended to meet disability-related
study or travel costs.
In Wales, the Department for Education, Lifelong
Learning and Skills (DELLS) within the Welsh Assembly funds disabled students
in FE via a ‘supplementary funding’ stream which FE institutions may apply for
annually. Detailed returns are submitted by the institutions outlining the need
for additional human and/or technical support for individual disabled students;
the Welsh Assembly Government allocates a contribution to the cost based on
those returns. Provision designed exclusively for disabled students (ie
discrete provision) is funded via subject area weights.
Institutions are eligible to apply for
exceptional funding only in those cases where a student with considerable
support needs wishes to attend their institution on a day basis, where the
recommendation of a multi-professional assessment is that a specialist
residential placement would be appropriate.
The Assembly has recently introduced a new
National Planning and Funding System (NPFS) for post-16 education and training.
In 2005 the first part, ‘Student Provision’, was rolled out. However, funding
for disabled students and plans to change the system have yet to take effect.
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