Absolutely - sorry for not being clear, but that is what I meant by "the service provider whether it be the individual or the service itself ". The point is that virtually no-one nowadays gets paid by the student. In years gone by they were and the student was sent large sums of money by the LEA to enable them to pay. Often this was done in advance, which meant that the student then had to pay the support invoice and then either reclaim from or pay back to the LEA, the difference. It was a nightmare for most students to keep dealing with such large and unwieldy financial interactions. Much better system now for the student by and large, but it does put the service provider - HEI or individual - in the middle when an LEA refuses to pay!

Paddy

-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion list for disabled students and their support staff. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ginny Stacey
Sent: 13 February 2007 16:08
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: re Did Not Attends and DSA

Not all HE institutions pay their support tutors, some ask the support tutors to invoice the LEAs direct.
Ginny Stacey

Turner, Paddy wrote:
> "NMHs may otherwise lose income for that day and incur travel costs."
> I think the DfES are living in a different era - we pay our staff in 
> good faith and attempt to reclaim the money from the Funding 
> Authorities - it is not they who lose money it is the service 
> provider........unless ofcourse we redirect the charge to the student 
> as directed by one LEA! I consulted the DRC about this: is it 
> discrimination/unfavourable treatment for a disabled student to be 
> charged money because they failed to turn up for a session when this 
> doesn't happen to non-disabled students? Why should disabled students 
> have this additional burden of responsibility placed upon them? They 
> were rather bland and merely repeated my question back in the 'may be'
> form - "this may be contrary blah, blah, blah..."
> DSA is payable for *additional costs incurred by the student*. The 
> DfES guidance is right - the service provider whether it be the 
> individual or the service itself should be paid *by the student *when 
> attending in good faith and the LEA's should honour that. The refusal 
> by LEA's to pay the service provider is, *in theory*, a refusal to 
> reimburse the student - current practice for service providers to 
> invoice LEA's direct leaves the student out of the loop and leads this 
> aspect to be conveniently forgotten in my view!
> Cheers
> Paddy
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --
> *From:* Discussion list for disabled students and their support staff. 
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] *On Behalf Of *Marie Norris
> *Sent:* 07 February 2007 14:52
> *To:* [log in to unmask]
> *Subject:* FW: re Did Not Attends and DSA
>
> Further to Wendy's posting re Did Not Attends please see the message 
> copied below for the information I have recently received from the 
> SSIN Queries team. I had asked for further guidance from the DfES as 
> we have recently received a number of letters from LEAs who will not 
> pay for DNAs whatever the reason for the DNA.
>
> Previous DfES guidance was as follows:
>
> 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 SSIN update of July 2006 was similar. Please see 
> http://www.dfes.gov.uk/studentsupport/administrators/pdf/ACF9F58.pdf
>
> However this does not seem to be the current practice that some LEAs 
> are following, which is why I sought further clarification. I will 
> continue to discuss the issue with the SSIN queries team as we have 
> now built up a substantial file of un-paid invoices.
>
> Best wishes, Marie
>
> Marie Norris
>
> phone: 0845 833 9971
>
> fax: 0845 833 9979
>
> text/mobile: 07702 598408
>
> text only: 07786 204296
>
> [log in to unmask]
>
> www.clear-links.co.uk
>
> Clear Links Support Ltd
>
> Globe Works
>
> Penistone Road
>
> Sheffield S6 3AE
>
> Please use the Globe Works address above for all correspondence.
>
> Registered Office:
>
> Wake Smith Solicitors
>
> 68 Clarkehouse Road
>
> Sheffield S10 2LJ
>
> This message and any attachments are confidential and should only be 
> read by those to whom they are addressed. If you are not the intended 
> recipient, please delete this message from your computer and destroy 
> all copies. Any views or opinions are solely those of the author and 
> do not necessarily represent those of the company.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Shirley Farley [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of 
> SSIN Queries
> Sent: 19 January 2007 08:57
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: re Did Not Attends and DSA
>
> Dear Marie
>
> Thank you for your email sent to the SSIN Queries mailbox dated 2 
> January
>
> 2006. I have been asked to respond.
>
> We have referred to the DfES Policy Team for their advice. We are all
>
> aware that DSAs are personal grants paid in respect of additional 
> course
>
> related expenditure that a student is 'obliged to incur' to undertake 
> a
>
> course of higher education because of a disability. It is the 
> Departments
>
> view that when a student does not attend a pre-arranged session with a 
> NMH
>
> the question that must be asked is, 'whether they were obliged to 
> incur any
>
> expenditure as a result of not attending?'
>
> For example, is the student under a contractual obligation to pay a
>
> cancellation charge if they do not attend a NMH session and give less 
> than,
>
> say, a day's notice of cancellation? Was the student obliged to enter 
> into
>
> such a contract to secure the NMH support they need? Was the student
>
> obliged to cancel the NMH session and give less than the required 
> period of
>
> notice?
>
> In short, when a student does not attend a NMH session, the local 
> authority
>
> (LA) will have to take a view on the facts of the case. The LA must be
>
> satisfied that the student has:
>
> incurred expenditure as a result of not attending and
>
> was in fact obliged to incur this expenditure
>
> This information must be obtained before they could agree to such
>
> expenditure being met from the student's DSAs.
>
> I must stress that I am expressing the Department's view. The 
> Department
>
> are happy to discuss this issue further however, they have asked us to 
> to
>
> point out that the responsibility for assessing and awarding DSAs is
>
> devolved to the LAs - and they would not be able to contravene the
>
> statutory requirements listed above.
>
> I trust this has clarified the situation.
>
> Regards
>
> Shirl Farley
>
> Student Support
>
> ***********************************************
>