 |
 |
Liz Petley wrote: > Does anyone have experience of: > > 1. LEAs insisting on a minimum of three quotes on pieces of > equipment, even when in some cases they are very specialised and it > is difficult to find more than one supplier; Whenever I am asked for three quotes I refuse on the grounds that I do not always know of three suppliers whose service I would stand behind. The ones we use go out of their way to be supportive one-stop-shops to save the student having to run round gathering items together and then arguing with them all if something doesn't work. You do have to know your supplier to do this. > 2. LEAs refusing to accept the recommendations of a member of the > National Federation of Access Centres. We are not infallible and I have had my own reccomendations questioned on several occasions. I often get other people's reports sent to me if an LEA sees something they don't like. This includes the odd NFAC member and I always handle them the same way. I refuse to comment until I have spoken to the original author to understand their interpretation of the situation. We keep in touch with each other over broad issues of policy but do not echo each others every detail. > The welfare advisor in our Guild of Students is currently grappling > with such a case and would like to know if these problems are > widespread or if it is just one LEA being awkward. In this case the > student has a clearly defined physical disability and we hoped it > would be a straightforward case. If we can quote the practice of > other authorities it might help us get a quicker decision. Does the original author know of the problem? If the LEA thinks the report requires defending s/he is the obvious person to do it. Physical problems rarely cause dispute. Dave Laycock MBE Head of CCPD, Chair of NFAC Computer Centre for People with Disabilities University of Westminster 72 Great Portland Street London W1N 5AL tel. 0171-911-5161 fax. 0171-911-5162 WWW home page: http://www.wmin.ac.uk/ccpd/ %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%