Below is a copy of the advice
from John Joseph to a similar question- in practice, the maximum number of
sessions missed without notice which LEAs will pay for seems to be
3.
Students should be advised on
referral to a tutor that they risk having to pay for missed sessions if they
do so without sufficient notice / good
reason.
Regards
Liz
LizPlease see the attached which is a copy of advice provided by
a colleague and should answer your question.John
Payment arrangements
for cancelled non-medical helper support sessions
A colleague in DfES drafted some guidance on this subject
a while ago which was circulated in draft format to representatives of the
various DSA interest groups but never issued. It was clear from feedback received that it
would be impossible to provide comprehensive guidance to cover the varied
and complex issues.It was decided
that cases should be considered on an individual basis rather issuing
standard guidance which might be applied inappropriately.
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.Similarly,
where students give notice part way through the year that they no longer
need or want NMH support, we do not believe that LEAs should continue to pay
for NMH provision that is not being taken up.
Yours
sincerely,
John
Joseph
Hello
Can anyone tell me how they
deal with payments for students who fail to attend appointments with their
Dyslexia Tutors? We have been informed by an LEA that students' DSA will
not cover the cost of this and so it must be retrieved from the
student.
I am concerned about this
because I do not want to deter students from meeting with their tutors,
because there maybe a possibility of them incurring a cost. At the same
time I do not want to loose the valuable support that we get from our
Dyslexia tutors, because of loss of payments from unreliable
students.
Our Department has limited
funds and cannot afford to keep covering this cost and I am aware that,
for a lot of Dyslexic students, short-term memory deficit is an issue that
may result in them missing the odd appointment. I do not want them to be
disadvantaged because of this, so is there any advice out there that can
help us with our dilemma?
Thanks
Mark
Wakeham
Dyslexia Support Tutor
(UWIC)
