Point taken, but very few dyslexic students need to claim anywhere near the
DSA funding limit, and many HEIs are having to subsidse the real cost of
employing learning support tutors because Skill has not increased their DSA
rate for a number of years.

The majority of students who need more than the maximum NMHA are D/deaf
students who may need BSL interpreters, note-takers and language support.
These students often have to make do with less than ideal support because of
high support costs and the acute shortage of interpreters.

Clare
----------
>From: Liz Collins <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Support rates and DSA
>Date: Tue, Sep 18, 2001, 1:04 pm
>

> Rates of pay are more flexible in FE because the student's allowance is not
> capped in the same way that DSA works.  Additional support costs up to
> £19,000 can be claimed (with appropriate assessment and documentation etc.
> of course)and a special case can be made if the support costs are higher
> than this, to request higher funding (not always agreed to).  Therefore the
> rate of pay does not erode the number of hours available to support the
> student, whereas in HE with only £10,500 available higher rates of pay mean
> less support for the student if they are likely to use up all their DSA.
> There is an issue here to be taken up in order that more equality can be
> achieved for students with high levels of support requirements in HE. SKILL
> should be aware of this.
>
> Liz Collins
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Clare Davies [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 18 September 2001 13:00
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Support rates and DSA
> Importance: High
>
>
> The support coordinator at our local FE college informs me that they now
> claim £37.50/hour from FEFC for individual learning support (eg for dyslexic
> students) and £12.50/hour for a learning support assistant.
>
> These rates have been increasing year-on-year, unlike dyslexia support in HE
> which has been "frozen" at £35/hour maximum for the past 4-5 years. It seems
> that while the HE tutor scales are higher than in FE, dyslexia learning
> support rates are now lower.
>
> FE colleges run an increasing number of HE courses, and would expect to
> claim at least the FE rate via DSA for providing support to their HE
> students with disabilities or dyslexia.  Has anyone succeeded in obtaining
> the FE rates from DSA?
>
> The difficulty appears to be perpetuated by the fact that Skill bases their
> DSA recommendations on information from HEI's on the rates they claim, while
> the hourly individual learning support rate is capped by LEA's on the basis
> of the Skill recommendations.
>
> How can we address this to gain the long-overdue increase in DSA for
> learning support?
>
> Clare Davies