Hello

This is something that appears to be cropping up more and more as each LEA
is audited. If the QAG do intend to use this system of 2 quotes then that
would be great. Consistency is essential in order that students receive
support at the earliest possible stage and without prior knowledge of LEA
requirements some students assessed by myself and other colleagues are not
receiving parity, because of letters going back and forth insisting on
additional information. As I understand it in our area Pembrokeshire,
Ceredigion and maybe Carmarthenshire require 3 quotes, Caerphilly insist on
one and the others are easy either way. As yet I haven't had a single LEA
require 2.

As regards the extra workload, I prefer to offer 2 or 3 quotes in order to
ensure impartiality and would therefore not charge for this service. This
extra work has also been made a lot easier with the online quoting systems
being offered by Remtek, Wyvern and others. All I get frustrated by is the
inconsistency of LEAs.

Cheers

Mark Boyce

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Trott [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 30 September 2003 18:01
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: additional equipment quotes for DSAs


Hi,
Where it is known that an LEA requires more than one quote we provide them -
2 WMids LEAs, for example, require 3, another requires 2. Another 2 LEAs
said
"Don't confuse us, you chose the supplier"

Personally I would prefer to provide the extra quotes as then I can make
sure
that they are quoting like-for-like. We will always provide extra quotes if
asked.

The QAG guidelines now state that assessors must ALWAYS provide 2 quotes to
demonstrate impartiality - how this squares with those LEAs that want 3 or
1,
I'm not sure.

LEAs do not always, well in fact rarely, tell assessors in advance how many
quotes they require - it would be nice if they did this in the letter
authorising the student to seek an assessment or in the letter to the
assessor asking
them to book an appointment.

I agree that it should not be the role of the student (as has been known in
some cases) or the disability officer to get extra quotes. The fact is that
assessors (or centres) can charge for any extra work and disability officers
rarely can. Personally, I don't charge extra but I'm not sure it is fair to
do
more work for one student than another without charging?

Of course, it will take time and fewer students might be seen. An extra 15
or
30 minutes on each student might add up to 50 or more hours a year or 6 or 7
fewer students per assessor? In my case it doesn't matter too much if extra
hours are involved as I'm self employed and can work longer hours if I want
or
need to but some assessors are employed for a fixed number of hours per week
and some are given a set fee per assessment.

As with most things in this business there is always a trade off. The point
is that having signed up to the QAG criteria centres will now be resonsible
for
ensuring that assessors provide at least 2 quotes per assessment.

Mick Trott











 In a message dated 30/09/03 16:36:34 GMT Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

<<
 > Could anyone clarify who is actually responsible for providing the
 > additional two quotes, or whether this is an issue that has yet to be
 > resolved? Should it be the original needs assessor, the student or the
 > student's university / college? >>