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The statutory legislation hasn't changed: DSA is still a grant awarded to the individual student. The funding authority can set limits to the amount of funding they release for equipment and support costs based on information provided in the needs assessment, but there's nothing in the legislation that allows them to withhold funding from a student who chooses to use an alternative supplier to provide equipment or support. Assessors should take into account the possibility that local assistive tech training services might be capable of responding to the individual student's training needs better than a national supplier in some cases, so should advise the student to contact their disability officer to find out if local training services exist as well as providing information about training offered by the equipment supplier(s). A reasonable estimate for maximum training costs should be provided in the assessment report, irrespective of who provides it. I don't think it's right to include assistive technology training as part of the equipment recommendations in a DSA report, as this specialist support is essentially non-medical helpers assistance. Ian Francis ----- Original Message ----- From: "Julia Tait" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 2:07 PM Subject: IT training > Dear colleagues, > We were recently informed by Student Finance England that DSA training has > to be carried out by one of the suppliers recommended in the Needs > Assessment and cannot be carried out by a locally based trainer. Is this > a new regulation or has this been the case for a while? Does anyone know > if Needs Assessment Centres are allowed to carry out training or if that > has been changed as well? We find that being able to use a local trainer > is often extremely helpful to the student. > > Thank you. > > -- > Julia Tait > Senior Adviser & Co-ordinator for Students with Dyslexia > & Other Specific Learning Difficulties, > Student Services, > Oxford Brookes University > Helena Kennedy Student Centre, > Headington Hill Campus > Oxford OX3 0BP > > 01865 484659 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Internal Virus Database is out of date. Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com Version: 8.0.176 / Virus Database: 270.10.23/1951 - Release Date: 13/02/2009 06:51