Hi
In response to the email below, a similar query was raised on another forum, so please see below the detail posted there. I have also detailed below further information relating to the fees associated with the processes.
The up-front admin fee covers a whole range of areas including sourcing and matching an appropriate worker to the student, enhanced CRB disclosures, full training for lone workers including health & safety, risk assessment and lone working, full insurance to cover workers working in the students home or private buildings/locations. The workers also have access to a lone worker personal monitoring service to check in and out of locations and raise an alarm if they have a problem. The risk assessment fee applies to the first session with the student, during which, the worker completes a risk assessment of the home/location to ensure it is a safe environment to work in, they also use this session to plan out and agree the support plan for with the student. These fees are charged separately, so that they do not reduce or impact on the student's actual hours of support agreed by their funding body.
The costings are based on a service/model agreed with the Open University to support specifically their students in the home. However, this service is also accessible to other institutes should they have a requirement to support student's in the home/non public building (i.e. for disability related reasons or perhaps for distance learners). So all of the costs are directly related to ensuring that the safest possible working environment exists for both the worker and the student, along with ongoing support and training for the worker.
These fees only apply in situations where the student actually ends up receiving support in the home. So if a student has the fees written in to their needs assessment/award letter, but then subsequently agrees to meet up and work in a public location, the full fees would not be chargeable. This service is also only offered or suggested to students by the university in situations where they are unable to facilitate support on site for whatever reason and is only delivered in this format if the student, worker and uni are all completely satisfied for it to.
Some providers do choose to cover all costs in the hourly rates applied to the on-going support, however, we, the OU and the OU DSA Office considered both models and concluded that the up front fee model was best value for the student, as the fee is a one off to cover initial costs associated with the areas above not linked directly to the on-going support. Also, only a maximum of one fee is payable by a student even if they subsequently change their workers. So a student retaining their worker for the duration of their course(s) would only pay one fee at the start. A student, who pays the initial fee, but then for whatever reason changes their worker a number of times, there would not be a fee for each worker (despite the initial fee being directly linked to the cost of recruiting, training, CRB'ing, insuring etc. one worker). The only exception to this (as agreed with the OU and the OU DSA office) is if there needs to be a change of worker in subsequent years, the DSA office would make allowance for another fee, but this in no way would affect the number of hours the student can then access in relation to the on-going support.
Furthermore, these fees have been calculated and agreed in full collaboration between Randstad, the Open University and the Open University DSA office to ensure they are reasonable and deliver value for money for the student in return for a high quality, but equally as important, a highly safeguarded service, with no gray areas, such as employment responsibilities, lack of insurance, health and safety etc.
I hope this clarifies the fee structure, however, if anyone has any further queries, please do feel free to contact me off list.
Best regards
Ashley
Best regards
Ashley Garner
operations manager
Randstad
114 Bridge Street
Warrington, WA1 2RU
T +44 (0)845 130 4655
F +44 (0)845 130 2714
M +44 (0)7921 472 075
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www.randstad.co.uk
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-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion list for disabled students and their support staff. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Anthony Healy
Sent: 01 June 2009 14:18
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: quotes for support tutoring
Dear Penny
Couldn't agree more. This is not rocket science, but the fact that the big mover in
question can seemingly justify these expensive arrangements with relative impunity is
testament to the lack of "joined-up" thinking.
A central register of 'non-medical helpers' as discussed by Ros with the SLC, and a
website where practitioners can list their credentials is a good start. Though I suspect
that until the much-awaited SLA for the NMH sector is hammered out, these loopholes will
continue to be exploited.
Suffice to say, that there are private companies (e.g. Clear Links, Claro Learning) - who
do not charge an upfront fee, and who consider the initial risk assessment as an on- cost
of providing the service.
Naturally, we would agree with Amanda that had the student been provided with an
alternative to an HEI, a referral at an earlier stage would have been facilitated. But this is
not a zero-sum game. Choice - even from the "dreaded" private sector - is not
detrimental to the service provided by HEI's, but complimentary. The key is to keep the
student, and the tax payer for that matter, as the central point of focus.
Anthony Healy
Director, Development
Claro Learning
www.clarolearning.com
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