Dear Colleagues,
Perhaps, I am a little late in becoming aware of this. However, I have recently heard of instances of students being pressurised by their Universities to take up support from them or have other support withdrawn.
As someone who for a long time organised non-medical helper support for students, I am surprised and don't really understand the logic of co-ersion, however mildly or subtly put. Aside from the question of ethics, students don't really attend if they are co-erced (or don't really trust the service), which leads to a waste of time and money, and most importantly to a monumental waste of opportunity.
There is plenty of work to do, and if a few students here or there choose another service provider, when they are using someone who is able to deliver a good service, this is not at all problematic. Sometimes, students had experience of a tutor, for example, and I ask that the tutor make contact, and send a CV. For my part, I informed them of the procedures for applying to the LEA for funding. This didn't happen very often as most students preferred to have services organised within the University and wouldn't have known where to begin to find suitable people to assist them. However, to have forced students would have undermined the credibility of the service. (We can't keep any secrets in this business, or any other...our reputations, whether truthfully or otherwise, go a long way before us.) In the domain of disability support, reputation is important in as much as it determines the confidence that students have in our practice and so determines to what extent they will ask for the support that they need.
Regards,
Penny Georgiou
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