It doesn't help when DA's contact LEAs to increase hours - and we only
do that because it is necessary - and the LEA says the student must be
reassessed by the original assessor first.  Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion list for disabled students and their support staff.
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John Conway
Sent: 31 October 2008 14:45
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: 10 hour rule for dyslexic support

PRECISELY MY POINT - Assessors are writing this into their reports!

PLEASE find some wording that does not stop the students from coming
forward to us!   Several people spoke up about this at the SW Forum
meeting in Bournemouth.

Of course, it would help if we all had a clearer idea of who can
recommend more - and on what grounds.  We read variously that it is the
Assessor or the Tutor - that it has to be countersigned by the
Disability Officer or the Assessor. WHO???  I would ask why it has to go
back to the assessor if the assessor can't recommend it in the first
place.

Still - why should I worry - less work for us if students are frightened
off.   Maybe I've seen the real plot?

John


-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion list for disabled students and their support staff.
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Bryan Jones
Sent: Friday, October 31, 2008 9:24 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: 10 hour rule for dyslexic support

Not explicitly stated but perhaps not that hidden away in my previous
response was, why is anyone telling students they only have 10 sessions?
And making them fret that this is all that they will get.  We as know
anxiety, when confronted by the prospect of undertaking a written
assignment, is a significant issue for those with SpLd, why add to that?
Needs assessment reports have always contained a number (that was in the
last email).  I assume you haven't just been recommending specialist
study skills sessions for each week of the academic year and for the
full duration of the course for all the students you have been
assessing.  Or when / if you have been recommending a specific figure or
time period informing the student that this may well be their lot, so
use it wisely. unless of course the Study Skills Tutor can make a case
for more.   And I believe SLC have also stated that more than 10
sessions can be recommended if a sound case can be made by the DSA
Assessor.  

Bryan Jones,
Manager, Disability Support Services
& North London Regional Access Centre,
Middlesex University
Tel: 020 8411 5366

-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion list for disabled students and their support staff.
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Amanda Kent
Sent: 31 October 2008 08:53
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: 10 hour rule for dyslexic support

Bryan,
I understood John Conway's point to be that students were interpreting
the 
phrasing of NARs which describe the SLC-10 as meaning that there was a 
numerical limit on the number of sessions. The NAR is a means of 
communicating assessment of need outcomes to the student through
writing, 
a method of communication that some of them may find problematic for 
disability-related reasons. With one main administrative body on the
horizon 
there is opportunity to create some sort of standard wording or baseline

explanation in Plain English. Presumably this would be an issue to go to
SLC as 
some form of feedback but in the meantime, there's a risk that students
aka 
customers will be adversely affected. 

To evidence need is a sound approach to practice and audit; if the SLC
want 
to place a checkpoint in at 10 that's up to them. It has the advantage
of 
providing a sense of equal treatment (whereas the current situation is,
as you 
describe- centres and LAs having different methods of quantification).

However, whether 10 sessions (or less) is an appropriate estimate for
most 
students seems to me to be irrelevant within the wider context of an
individual 
needs assessment. Some students will require more (such is the effect of

individual difference on the formation of need). If one 'beyond 10
student' 
gets the impression that they are limited to 10 and modifies their
behaviour 
accordingly, then that is one too many students adversely affected by
the 
wording of reports fashioned by admin change.


 Amanda