Disabled Student Allowance Update AccessAbility 21 September 2010

1. Disabled Students’
Allowances Update
Katy Barge
Student Finance Consultant
South West region

2. Contents
• Current structure
• Volumes
• Processes
• Overview of improvements
• Online Updates & Resources
• Contact Details

3. The Team
Mark Cassidy - Head of Processing Services
Anthony Hill
DSA Manager
DSA Officers DSA Assessors DSA Assessors Invoice Team
DSA Team increased from 24 to 47 fully trained staff

4. SFE Application volumes
FORECAST 10/11 Academic year • 5% of New students will apply for DSA
• 25% of DSA students will not apply in their
Total = 751,500
first year

5. DSA Application Volumes
2008/2009 2009/2010 2010/2011
3,000 25,000 35,000
DSA applications forecast 10/11
16%
14%
12%
10%
% Forecast of overall 8%
recieved
6%
4%
2%
0%
Apr-10 May- Jun-10 Jul-10 Aug- Sep- Oct-10 Nov- Dec- Jan-11 Feb- Mar-
10 10 10 10 10 11 11
Month

6. Service Level Agreements
• DSA1 = 10 working days
• Needs Assessments = 10 working days
• Invoices = 10-15 working days
• Processing on track and within SLA’s for all areas
• Turnaround times will be posted on Practitioner website - updated weekly

7. Improvements/Lessons learned
DESCRIPTION PREVIOUS PROCESS NEW PROCESS BENEFIT
Speed of delivery to
Workflow Paper based process Scanning solution
customer
Initial 10 hour Individual Learning Plans Agree with recommended Speed of delivery to
support required hours customer
Focused DSA team
SST team comprising of
correctly resourced.
DSA officers and Speed of delivery to
Resource/structure Forecasting and resource
Dependants grants customer
planning methods in
assessors
place
Separate email address
for Suppliers, Access Improved customer
Email inboxes One inbox for all queries
Centres, Disability service
Advisors and Students

8. Improvements/Lessons learned
DESCRIPTION PREVIOUS PROCESS NEW PROCESS BENEFIT
Speed of delivery
Seek justification for Trust Needs Assessor to customer
Needs Assessment reports
recommendations recommendations
When applying for core
Declaration signed on DSA1 Speed of delivery
Student declaration support, this declaration
form to customer
covers all
Managed within existing Designated focused Improved
Customer contact
teams contact team customer service
DSA only, P/T & P/G students - Section 5 required HEI stamp Contact HEI to obtain Speed of delivery
confirmation of attendance at all times. confirmation of attendance to customer

9. http://www.practitioners.studentfinanceengland.co.uk

10. DSA Bulletin updated
regularly
Set of updated FAQs
available

11. Regular DSA Processing
updates available on
corporate website
http://www.slc.co.uk

12. Contact Details
• Disability Practitioners at HEIs: disability_adviser@slc.co.uk
• For Needs Assessment Centres: access_centre@slc.co.uk
• Submission of NAR via PGP: needs_assessment_report@slc.co.uk
• Practitioners Helpline: for queries relating to policy and regulations:
ssin_Queries@slc.co.uk Tel: 0845 602 0583
• Invoices or invoice queries from your university now need to be sent to:
invoice_team@slc.co.uk
• Telephone number for the DSA Team for specific queries : 01325 215194
• There is a minicom number for students: 0845 603 1693 these calls are dealt
with by the contact team in Glasgow