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Forwarded to Dis-Forum on behalf of my colleague Marie
Norris:
Re DNAs…….
We are a specialist agency which works with
universities and colleges to provide support workers to students. Part of our
work is to manage the dyslexia tutor service on behalf of a number of
universities. Because of this we see some non-attendance from students.
One or two funding bodies recently began to say
that they could not pay for DNAs and that the students should be invoiced. One
funding body wrote directly to a student with Asperger’s Syndrome and
asked him to pay for the occasional sessions he had missed.
When this first happened I wrote and explained that
Learner Support is careful about when to pay for 'did not attends' and has a
procedure concerning the circumstances in which a tutor will be paid. I also
said that we think it is not possible to have a blanket policy to say that
students have to pay for sessions which they did not attend. I wrote that there
could be disability related reasons in relation to the student's non-attendance
and that we believe that it is not unreasonable for the tutor to be paid in
such circumstances. I pointed out that the tutors were not employed by the
university, had prepared the work for the session, and were there at that time
to support that student. I said that if the student did not attend, the tutor
could not work with anyone else at such short notice.
One LEA continued to say that they could not pay
for DNAs because it was in the Regulations. So I took advice from the DFES.
They provided written guidance to me. I now use the paragraphs below in any
letters re DNAs.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
The DFES have informed me that they can offer
advice on the Student Support Regulations but the decision on whether support
is paid rests with the LEA.
The guidance they have provided is detailed below:
There will be occasions
where students fail to attend sessions with non-medical helpers (NMHs) at short
notice for reasons such as illness. In such circumstances we feel that
the NMHs fee may still be paid from the DSA. NMHs may otherwise lose
income for that day and incur travel costs. They may also have turned
down other work on the cancelled date which they were not able to accept at the
time of the offer because of the prior commitment but which was no longer
available when the student cancelled the session.
The statutory
instruments provide that DSAs are grants equal to the additional amount that
LEAs are satisfied the disabled student is obliged to incur. Therefore,
when students continually
fail to attend NMH
sessions without good reason a point must come when the LEA can no longer agree
to pay for NMH provision that is not being used.
I hope the above is helpful. It would be useful to
know whether our practice is similar to others practice.
Regards, Marie
Learner Support
President Way
tel: 0845
4565857
fax: 0800
0830841
text/mobile:
07866 389233
www.learnersupport.org
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