Disability Service

Disability Service Annual Report 2010-11Our mission is to provide an integrated range of high quality services for disabled students that promote equality and inclusion and enable disabled students to engage and succeed in all of their University experience without disadvantage that relates to impairment.

What are the things that inform our values and the way that we work?

Strong commitment to promoting a social model of equality.

Need to have respect for and be responsive to our stakeholders.

Valuing diversity and difference.

Being inclusive and non-judgemental in our approach.

Committed to continuous improvement / excellence.

Promoting change through creative and innovative approaches to service delivery.

Who are our main stakeholders?

1. Disabled Students (prospective and current).

2. University Staff in Schools and Central Services (with responsibility for disabled students).

3. Disabled Staff and Staff with responsibility for disabled staff (including managers) in Schools and Central Services.

4. Funding Bodies (University Finance, HEFCE, SFE, NHS, ERSC).

5. Service Providers (Clear Links, Social Services and other care providers, Assessment Centres, Educational Psychologists, Study Coaches).

Table of Contents:

Executive Summary......................................................................................................................4

Key Achievements 2010/11:.........................................................................................................4

Growth.......................................................................................................................................4

Moved location..........................................................................................................................4

Provided a range of support, advice and guidance...................................................................4

Improved Screening for SpLD...................................................................................................5

Growth in the Educational Support Work Scheme....................................................................5

Provided Training and Development.........................................................................................5

Worked with Estates.................................................................................................................5

Mental Health Forum.................................................................................................................5

Disability Equality Forum...........................................................................................................5

Partnership Working with Schools and other University Divisions................................................5

Reasonable Adjustments in Placement Practice.......................................................................5

Communicating with Schools....................................................................................................5

Adjustments in Exams...............................................................................................................6

Inclusive LTA.............................................................................................................................6

Widening Participation (WP).....................................................................................................6

Working with the Eye Clinic (RDVS).........................................................................................6

Working with the Equality Unit..................................................................................................6

Careers Internships...................................................................................................................6

Hate Crime Conference............................................................................................................6

Admissions Procedure..............................................................................................................6

Partnership working with other organisations and the local community........................................7

1. What we do...............................................................................................................................7

2. Another Year of Achievements.................................................................................................7

Growth in terms of numbers of students that we support..........................................................7

Growth in the Service Team....................................................................................................10

Move to new location..............................................................................................................11

3. What we have done in 2010/11..............................................................................................11

Provided Support, Advice and Guidance to students with a range of impairments.................11

Improved the process for screening and referring all new intake for evidence of SpLD.........14

Educational Support Work Scheme (ESW).............................................................................15

Provided training and development and awareness raising....................................................162

Worked with Estates and Facilities on issues relating to the physical environment................16

Mental Health Forum...............................................................................................................17

Disability Equality Forum (DEF)..............................................................................................17

4. Partnership Working...............................................................................................................18

4.2 Partnership working with Schools and other University Divisions.....................................18

4.2 Partnership working with other organisations and the local community............................22

5. What next?..............................................................................................................................22

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Executive Summary

The Disability Service has 3 key functions:

providing 1:1 support advice and guidance to individual disabled students;

offering a University wide screening and assessment process that identifies and supports students with Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD);

working with other University staff to support and develop practice and policies that promote inclusion and ensure the best possible outcome for disabled students.

Key Achievements 2010/11:

GrowthSteady growth in numbers of students accessing the Service over the past 5 years, with the University Data Centre recording 884 in 2010/11 (87 more than the previous year). Bigger increases in some Schools than others and in particular the School of Health and the School of Life Science. There appears to have been a drop in disabled student numbers on the School of Management, SLED and SSIS during the period (Figure 1).

Core Team has grown in response to the increase in demand. A 0.5 FTE Mental Health/ Wellbeing Adviser was approved in 2009 and in August 2011 fixed-term contracts for 0.5 Administrative Support Assistant and an additional 10 hours per week for the Administrative Assistants as well as an additional 7.25 hours for a Disability Adviser -SpLD were agreed. The core team for the start of the academic year 11/12 will consist of a total of 13 members.

The team of freelance Educational Support Workers and Study Coaches has also grown in line with increased demand from 6 in 2006/7 to 16 in 2010/11.

Moved locationWe moved to new location in Student Central in August 2010, this has been very positive as we have better visibility and much improved facilities.

Provided a range of support, advice and guidanceOverall numbers increased by 87 disabled students from 2009/10 to 2010/11(Figure 4&5). We have also seen an increase in the numbers of students successfully applying for Disabled Student’s Allowance (DSA) (Figure 6). The most significant increase in numbers are among students on the Autistic Spectrum (up 8), SpLDs (up 65) and those in the group of 3 categories that includes students with mental health difficulties (up 42). These are the 3 areas that both expertise and resources within the Service have grown over the past few years. Other categories have remained largely static, but the impairment category called ‘unseen’ has seen a decrease in student numbers. The other category that has seen a drop in numbers is in students who are deaf and hearing impaired.

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Improved Screening for SpLDWe have improved and streamlined screening for Specific Learning Difficulties and this has resulted in a 12% increase in the numbers of students with a positive diagnosis of SpLD, in 2010/11 compared with the previous year (Figure 7). We have concerns about the continued availability of Access to Learning Funds (ALF) as this is our main source of funding to subsidise Educational Psychologists Assessments for students.

Growth in the Educational Support Work SchemeThis year the numbers of student supported by the Study Coaches and Educational Support Workers have increased. 16 coaches have provided 3503 hours of intensive 1:1 support (figure 8). Feedback from students suggests that this support has played a crucial part in their engagement, progression and success.

Provided Training and DevelopmentWe continue to work closely with Staff Development to provide training and awareness on a range of issues around disability equality and mental health. This year we have also designed and delivered bespoke training in Schools and with the Centre for Educational Development around disability equality and LTA.

Worked with EstatesWe have excellent working relationships with Estates and continue to work with them on the task of making the Campus more accessible. We worked with n-able (Disabled Staff Network) to organise a successful consultation event that provided the basis of a University wide access and orientation audit of the external environment on campus.

Mental Health ForumMeets 4 times a year and provides opportunities for sharing ideas and good practice and improving service delivery.

Disability Equality ForumMeets 4 times a year and has a changed format and focus. We have a strong commitment to developing this forum as a space to hear the ‘disabled student voice’.

Partnership Working with Schools and other University Divisions

Reasonable Adjustments in Placement PracticeA successful project with 3 Schools was piloted, with the main aim of improving the experience for disabled students on placement by improving communication and awareness raising.

Communicating with SchoolsWe have improved our systems for communicating with colleagues in Schools and other Divisions but this area continues to present real challenges. We have been engaged in on-

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going work with colleagues in LSS to make the process more effective by sharing information about adjustments for disabled students, directly through SAINT.

Adjustments in ExamsInformation about adjustment in exams is now communicated directly through SAINT, making the process more efficient. But as the numbers of disabled students rises, requests/entitlement to more adjusted exams also rises. This is difficult to manage and supports a growing argument, that the University should be exploring more inclusive assessment practices that would minimise the need for ‘adjusted’ exams.

Inclusive LTAWe are active members of a group organised through the Centre for Educational Development called DILTA that looks at ways of making Learning Teaching and Assessment more inclusive.

Widening Participation (WP)We continue to work with the WP Team to promote and deliver activities that will encourage participation in the University by disabled young people. This year we co-organised a successful Spring School in collaboration with the Media Museum called a Media Workshop.

Working with the Eye Clinic (RDVS)Students who experience visual disturbance and reading difficulties are able to access the services of the RDVS clinic in the University Eye Clinic. We have worked on improving referral to this Service as well as hosting an external event where dyslexia tutors in the region could hear about the work and research being carried out by Jim Gilchrist and Caroline Wilson.

Working with the Equality UnitWe have worked closely with the Equality Unit to develop and promote the Disabled Staff Network, n-able. We meet regularly to raise the profile of disability issues on the general equality agenda and also around the development of the new Single Equality Strategy for the University.

Careers InternshipsIn 2010 we worked with CDS to pilot an internship scheme where disabled students were pro-actively targeted. This was reasonably successful and highlighted the need to do some more intensive work with this cohort in order to improve confidence and skill.

Hate Crime ConferenceWe contributed to a successful conference on Hate Crime in July 2011

Admissions ProcedureWe continue to operate a system for early identification and contact with disabled applicants but recognise the need to improve practice.

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Partnership working with other organisations and the local community

We are active members of the Bradford and District Disability Partnership Board and between 2009 and 2011 were involved in a city wide project that looked at collaborative working and in particular, whether there was any scope to share interpreting services.

1. What we do

Through a team of trained and qualified staff, we offer a range of interventions that aim to identify and minimise any barriers to access and success that disabled students might come across in the University. We do this by:

1. providing 1:1 support advice and guidance to individual disabled students;

2. offering a University wide screening and assessment process that identifies and supports students with Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD);

3. working closely with a wide range of other University staff to support and develop practice and policies that promote inclusion and ensure the best possible outcome for disabled students.

Our approach focusses on helping individual students to access the support that they are entitled to, such as: funding (Disabled Student’s Allowance DSA) and adjustments to processes, procedures and services. At the same time, we work closely with other staff in the University, to look at how we can change and improve existing processes, procedures and services in a way that makes the University experience better not only for disabled students but for all students.

‘I received fantastic support and guidance from the disability team, my experience of the assessment process and DSA application was positive. I was kept well informed and although there were issues about timeframes for processes, I understood that this was due to external agencies. As a mature student this was the first time I have accessed such support and due to my disability being long standing and not accessing support before I was not aware of entitlement. The support I have received in my first year has been positive and I will continue to use the service. As stated before I feel my exam experience and provisions put in place for this have, I feel contributed to me passing my first year and going into my second year well informed and confident about my studies. Many thanks to the team and I have begun to ensure that fellow students who like me were not aware of the service and support it can offer know that the team / office is there’.

2. Another Year of Achievements

Growth in terms of numbers of students that we supportFor the past 5 years there has been a steady growth in the numbers of students accessing the Service. The numbers below are extracted from the data prepared by the University for the

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Higher Education Statistical Agency (HESA) return, and demonstrate the incremental increase in student numbers over time. Figure 1. shows the total number of disabled students that have a disability code entered on their student record and the total number of disabled students that have registered with the Disability Service. Disability codes are entered onto the student record system SAINT at various stages in the student cycle. Many students self ‘declare’ on their UCAS, application forms or at registration. Other disabled students are recorded on the system when they register with the Service. Figure 2. breaks the numbers of students down into impairment categories.

Figure 1: Number of Disabled Students per Academic Year

2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11

The University 864 959 1006 1086 1191

Registered with DS 571 686 764 797 884

Not registered with DS 293 273 242 289 307

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Figure 2: Number of Disabled Students in 2010/11 by UCAS Category

Disability / Impairment (UCAS Categories)Registered with DS

A specific learning difficulty, e.g. dyslexia 546

An unseen disability, e.g. diabetes, epilepsy, asthma 48

Autistic Spectrum Disorder 24

Blind/are partially sighted 24

Deaf/have a hearing impairment 18

Mental health difficulties 62

Multiple disabilities 43

Other Disability 94

Wheelchair user/have mobility difficulties 25

All 884

As well as the numbers, qualitative feedback suggests that many of the students accessing our Service attribute much of their success at University to the support that they received.

‘I am a 3rd year Physical and Environmental Geography student, and have just completed the final exam of my course. Throughout my studies I have had difficulties with mental health issues, for which I have received the support of the Disability Service, Counselling Service and my department's personal tutor system.

The continual help and encouragement of these services over the past few years has allowed me to feel comfortable enough to study successfully. In particular, the support provided by James Moore (Mental Health Advisor), Margaret Errington (Support Tutor) and Dr. Jill Thompson (personal tutor) has been outstanding.

They have all greatly exceeded my expectations on many occasions, by going above and beyond to ensure that I had whatever adjustments were necessary to make my time at the University as straight forward as possible. They created a very effective support network which allowed me to focus on my studies, rather than be

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set back by my health difficulties. I also knew that at any time, I could get help if I needed it.

These people are a significant asset to the University, and I am confident that they will be a great help to many future students. I am extremely grateful that these services were available to me during my time at the University.’

‘I have always found the help from the Disability Service extremely useful in keeping me at university and enabling me to continue with my course when my mental health problems have made it difficult to meet deadlines.’

The data below on students with mental health difficulties was collated locally. The figures from 2009/10 and 2010/11 show significantly higher numbers of students than are showing on SAINT (121&143 compared to 54&62). Some of this discrepancy can be accounted for by the fact that many students with M/H issues record their data under the ‘other disability’ or ‘unseen’ category, or have multiple or other impairments.

Figure 3: Numbers of new students with Mental Health Issues seen by the Advisers

Academic Year Number of Students Seen

2009/2010 121

2010/2011 143

Growth in the Service TeamWe were fortunate this year in getting approval for expanding the core team to meet the demand from the increases in student numbers.

A Business Case for a further half-time Mental Health/ Wellbeing Adviser was approved in 2009 and in August 2011 RSAs were approved for a 0.5 Administrative Support Assistant and an additional 10 hours per week for the Administrative Assistants as well as an additional 7.25 hours for a Disability Adviser – SpLD for a fixed term of 2 years. So the core team for the start of the next academic year will consist of a total of 13 members of staff

Emma Laban – Administrative Support Assistant - FT

Rifat Bashir – Administrative Support Assistant 0.5 FTE

Joanne Clayton – Administrative Assistant - 0.6 FTE

Rebecca Firth – Administrative Assistant – 0.6 FTE

Jude Hart – Disability Adviser, Mental Health and Wellbeing 0.5 FTE

James Moore – Disability Adviser, Mental Health and Wellbeing 0.6 FTE

Elaine Winn – Disability Adviser and ESW Co-ordinator – FT

Stuart Walker – Disability Adviser, IT and Assistive Technology - FT10

Gill Cockburn – Disability Adviser, SpLD – 0.8 FTE

Fiona Van Marken – Disability Adviser, SpLD – 0.4 FTE

Helena Jones – Head of Service - FT

Gay McTague and Steve Wood - Educational Support Workers (18 hrs term-time only)

As well as the core team, the Service provides support through a team of freelance specialists; this team has also grown in line with increased demand from 6 in 2006/7 to 16 in 2010/11.

Move to new locationAt the beginning of September 2010, we were fortunate to move in to our great new premises in Student Central. This has been a really positive move, and has put the Service right back in the ‘heart’ of the student experience. Sharing a joint reception/information area with Career Development Service has also presented opportunities for partnership working and increased our visibility and profile. The move has worked towards regularising and de-stigmatising disability and this has had an impact on the numbers of students dropping in and using the Service.

3. What we have done in 2010/11

Provided Support, Advice and Guidance to students with a range of impairmentsFigures 4 and 5 below show the numbers of disabled students, by impairment categories that were in each of the 7 Schools in 2009/10 and 2010/11.

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Figures 4: Number of students 2009/10

ImpairmentThe University

EDT

Health

SCIM

Life Sciences

Management

SLED

SSIS

A specific learning difficulty, e.g. dyslexia

481 28 139 46 112 25 18 113

An unseen disability, e.g. diabetes, epilepsy, asthma

66 6 1 7 23 5 9 15

Autistic Spectrum Disorder

16 2 6 2 1 2 3

Blind/are partially sighted

25 4 2 4 3 2 10

Deaf/have a hearing impairment

29 6 6 5 2 4 6

Mental health difficulties

54 3 3 8 5 11 5 19

Multiple disabilities

36 1 4 5 10 1 4 11

Other Disability 67 5 13 6 20 5 4 14

Wheelchair user/have mobility difficulties

23 1 1 5 6 3 7

All 797 50 169 89 187 53 51 198

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Figure 5: Number of students 2010/11

ImpairmentThe University

EDT

Health

SCIM

Life Sciences

Management

SLED

SSIS

A specific learning difficulty, e.g. dyslexia

546 33 169 54 138 23 26 103

An unseen disability, e.g. diabetes, epilepsy, asthma

48 5 2 5 20 4 1 11

Autistic Spectrum Disorder

24 4 1 12 2 1 1 3

Blind/are partially sighted

24 4 4 3 2 1 10

Deaf/have a hearing impairment

18 1 1 4 6 1 5

Mental health difficulties

62 2 8 9 14 8 6 15

Multiple disabilities

43 1 3 4 13 3 3 16

Other Disability 94 3 20 11 29 6 5 20

Wheelchair user/have mobility difficulties

25 2 3 3 7 1 3 6

All 884 55 211 102 232 49 46 189

There has been a fairly steady growth in the numbers of students accessing the Service over the past 5 years. Overall numbers increased by 87 students from 2009/10 to 2010/11. The 3 impairment categories/groups where there has been the most significant increase in numbers

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are among students with Asperger’s Syndrome or on the Autistic Spectrum (up 8), SpLDs (up 65) and those in the group of 3 categories that is not exclusively but certainly includes students with mental health difficulties (up 42). It is interesting to note that it is in these 3 areas that both expertise and resources within the Service have grown over the past few years. The impairment category called ‘unseen’ has seen a decrease in student numbers. This might be accounted for by the fact that this area has in the past included students with mental health issues other disabilities and students are redefining their impairments. But the other category that has seen a surprising drop in numbers is in students who are deaf and hearing impaired.

Many disabled students are entitled to non-means tested funding called Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) to fund adjustments and minimise the disadvantage that they experience at University. The numbers of our student in receipt of DSA has also grown each year.

Figure 6: Number of students in Receipt of Disabled Students Allowance

2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11

The University 531 589 581 612 621

Improved the process for screening and referring all new intake for evidence of SpLD Each academic year we carry out a University wide screening exercise, using a number of ‘tools’ including a questionnaire, a computerised test and an Assessment by an Educational Psychologist. The main purpose of this is to identify students who have previously un-diagnosed Specific Learning Difficulties, such as dyslexia or dyspraxia. Students with SpLD make up between 60-65% of the total number of disabled students at the University. In a UK study of over 100 institutions, 43% of the total population of students with SpLD were diagnosed after admission to university (Reid & Kirk, 2005:19). Reid, G., & Kirk, J. (2005). Dyslexia in Adults: Education and Employment. Chichester: Wiley.

We estimate that approximately 64% of the total numbers of students with SpLD are picked up through our screening process, and experience has shown that it is important to identify these students as early as possible if we are to be able to put appropriate support in place that will minimise the barriers for them.

For most students we are able to fund the full cost of the assessment by the Educational Psychologist (EP) though Access to Learning (ALF) funding. But as this funding has been reduced and capped in recent years, it is essential that we make the best possible use of the resource and ensure that as many students as possible that are referred to the EP, actually need referral. This has led us to develop more robust ways to screen and pre-assess students and resulted in a 12% increase in the numbers of students with a positive diagnosis of SpLD, in 2010/11 compared with the previous year.

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Figure 7: Number of students assessed for a SpLD by Educational Psychologist

2009/2010 2010/2011

No of students referred 127 182

No of students with positive diagnosis 103 170

Percentage of accurate referrals with a positive diagnosis

81% 93%

‘I am a final year Sociology and Psychology student who is waiting for my graduation and I feel I need to send you my thoughts on my experiences as a mature student in the School of Social Sciences. I am 47 years old and have only been in education for the last five years. I was unable to read and write, until I taught myself how to, at the age of 32 and was diagnosed with severe dyslexia at the age of 42.’

‘I would like to say that the support I have received from staff members of the disability department has been overwhelming. From the admin staff to the support workers, I have been constantly reassured and inspired to keep going, even when times were tough and I wanted to quit. Without them I would not be in the fortunate position I find myself in today.’

Educational Support Work Scheme (ESW)In 2009 we took a decision to ‘outsource’ a lot of the ESW support such as notetaking, that we previously provided ‘in-house’ for disabled students, to an organisation called Clear Links. We retained the co-ordination of Study Coaches and 2 generalist Education Support Workers, so that we could keep some quality assurance and also as a way of generating some income through the DSA.

This has worked very well for students and for the Service as many of the hugely time consuming difficulties around matching and timetabling notetakers and students have been absorbed and resolved by Clear Links. This has allowed us to focus on developing and improving the Service generally and specifically develop and grow the area of Study Coaching.

Study Coaches provide intensive 1:1 study and strategy support for students with a range of impairments including SpLDs, Mental Health issues and Autistic Spectrum issues. They usually meet with the students on a weekly basis for between 1 and 2 hours. Based on the assessment of the student’s needs they draw up a learning development plan, that focuses on developing study skills and strategies to enable the students to become effective and independent learners.

‘I strongly 'agree' that the level of support I received from my specialist tutor (Study Coach) was essential to my progress throughout my time at university.’

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Figure 8: Number of students accessing Study Coaching

2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11

Number of Study Coaches 6 10 11 15 16

Numbers of students 102 228 246 238 259

Number of hours provided 2183 2434 2872 3300 3503

Our 2 in-house Educational Support Workers; Gay and Steve, work with students with a range of support needs. They provide us with a ‘bridge’ between internally and externally provided services and allow us to better support students who may not get DSA funding or have complex needs and might need different types of support.

Provided training and development and awareness raisingWe work closely with Staff Development to provide training and awareness raising around disability and equality issues. In 2010/11 we offered 4 full day sessions on Mental Health Awareness. This year we reviewed the way that we deliver the 1 day Disability Issues training that is an element of the Recruitment and Selection Training provided by Staff Development, HR and the Equality Unit. This was partly in response to the introduction of the single Equality Act 2010 but mainly because we felt that it is important for key messages about disability and inclusion to run throughout the content and not be delivered as a separate element that could be perceived as an ‘add on’. We also presented a number of lunchtime Seminars on Supporting Students with SpLDs and a session on Inclusive LTA as part of the Centre for Educational Development programme. As well as this we delivered a number of bespoke sessions in Schools to both staff and students around the impact of changes to the legislation for disabled people.

‘It can be really difficult for people in the rest of the university and the wider world to accept, understand, and take a holistic approach to somebody who appears confident, capable and successful but who also deals with really quite bad mental health problems, and needs appropriate support and understanding. The disabilities service does an excellent job of this, and is really appreciated. For the wider university, possibly more training may be helpful?’

Worked with Estates and Facilities on issues relating to the physical environmentBetween August 2008 and February 2009 a comprehensive audit of the University Estate was commissioned. From this, a database was created to collate and track the developments and improvements needed to make the campus more accessible.

The Accessible Estates Steering Group (AESG) was established primarily to advise on and monitor the recommendations made as part of the audit. Membership is made up of staff from

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the Disability Service, Estates and disabled staff and students. The group met 4 times during 2010/11 and one achievement during this period was to employ an external access consultant to carry out a further audit on orientation and disabled access around the external spaces on campus. A consultation event around Parking and Transport to inform the audit took place 2010 and was attended by disabled staff and students as well as senior managers from the University.

“As a physically disabled person I find it really hard to get around university because of the up hills (gradient of the footpaths) i.e outside the atrium, walking up to Chesham from the JB Priestly library, and mainly on Great Horton Road to get lunch from the bottom of the street. Obviously there can’t be anything done here, but getting around is the greatest thing that I find difficult”.

In 2011, we were invited to be a member of the Projects Forum, organised by the Estates Division. This forum provides an overview of all of the new and improvement projects that are being undertaken and an opportunity for the Disability Service to contribute and advise on access issues.

Mental Health ForumThis Forum meets 4 times a year, bringing together interested parties from across the University including academic and support staff as well as students. The Forum also includes membership from local mental health services. The main aims of the Forum is to feedback on the work and developments in the Disability Service, to identify issues that impact on students with mental health difficulties and to share ideas with members about improving services and promoting mental wellbeing across the University.

Disability Equality Forum (DEF)Like the Mental Health Forum, the Disability Equality Forum also meets 4 times a year and has student and staff members as well as local community membership. We decided a number of years ago to change the format and main purpose of the DEF to make it less formal and more of a space where disabled students and staff and other interested parties could get together to share ideas and experiences. Each meeting has a key ‘theme’ and during 20010/11 these included:

Alternative methods and inclusive assessment.

What and how will disability issues be included in the Equality and Diversity Strategy.

Improving communication around disability issues with Schools and other Divisions.

Improving support for disabled students on placement.

One of our real concerns and commitments to DEF is that it should be a place where disabled students are able to ‘have a voice’. Some of the meetings have been very well attended by students, others have been less so.

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4. Partnership Working

4.2 Partnership working with Schools and other University Divisions

Reasonable Adjustments in Placement Practice

During 2010/11 the Disability Service took a lead role in a project co-ordinated through the School of Health around making reasonable adjustments for disabled students on placement. The project came about following a number of different but related concerns from staff in the School of Health, School of Social Science and Humanities and School of Life Sciences.

Staff in the School of Health Studies had received worrying feedback from some NHS placements, questioning the quality and ‘fitness to practice’ of some University of Bradford students with dyslexia and other impairments.

At the same time, a number of students on Social Work degrees had experienced difficulties on their placements. Some placement staff appeared to have very low levels of understanding about disability and the impact of impairment for some students. They also appeared reluctant to acknowledge their legal obligations to make reasonable adjustments.

This coincided with work that was being carried out in Pharmacy in collaboration with the Disability Service around the development of a Fitness to Practice policy for the University. This work also highlighted the need to clarify, improve and standardise procedures and practice around placement learning for disabled students.

One of the main concerns centred on communication between the University and the different placement providers.

In 2010, the Dean of the School of Health Studies formed a working group called Reasonable Adjustments in Placements (RAP). The group was made up of a wide range of stakeholders including academic staff from the above 3 Schools, staff from the Disability Team, occupational health practitioners, Equality and Diversity staff and a range of staff from placements/practice educators and the NHS Trusts.

The aim was to pull together ideas and experiences of the members from the different perspectives and to develop a policy, standard procedures and guidance that would help the University, the placement providers and the students to understand what their responsibilities are around arranging placements and making reasonable adjustments.

We created and agreed a process and following a short pilot in the School of Health and a comprehensive briefing exercise, the new process was adopted for the 2011/12 intake of students in the School of Health, Pharmacy and Social Work. This will need to be adopted and rolled out across the whole University if and when it is approved by Senate.

Communicating with Schools / LSP

Finding effective ways to communicate essential information about adjustments for disabled students to staff in Schools and other divisions in the University continues to be a challenge.

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The current system involves sending emails and a Learner Support Profile (LSP) report on each student, following an assessment of their needs by a Disability Adviser. The LSP is sent to a Dean’s nominee. Each School has developed its own system for disseminating this information and it clearly works better in some Schools than others, as the feedback from 2 disabled students below, highlights:

‘I sometimes feel that i am a student of the disability office, and not my department, as most of the issues / problems around gaining and accessing my studies, are arising because i feel some staff do not know how to meet or have a lack of awareness about how to best meet my needs around my disability and therefore most issues / problems are sorted out by the disability office, i also feel that my department does not work very well with the disability office, i.e. in the communications department.’

‘My department have been fantastic, giving support and inspiration- the department and the disability office made it possible for me, as a mature age student who left education at 14yrs old, with multiple disabilities (physical and psychological), including severe post-traumatic stress disorder, to complete my degree with first class honours, secure employment within the university as a research assistant, a place in an MA, and good chances at a scholarship. I started this degree with little hope of making it through the first year, let alone completing it with such amazing results. Thank you!’

We are currently looking into a system for linking the information in to SAINT and devising a process that reduces the amount of duplication. This is an outstanding project that needs developing.

Reasonable Adjustments in Exams

We recently succeeded in developing a process where the Exams Office is able to extract all the information that it needs around adjustments for disabled student’s exams directly from SAINT. This has significantly improved the process for both the Exams Office and the students.

‘My experience of exams I feel was good, I do feel that the support and arrangements I received enabled me to complete my exams to a higher standard, my disability is not a 'seen disability' and can at times create problems with situations like exams, but the provision of a separate room made all the difference and was instrumental I feel in me passing my exams.’

‘Having extra time allocated eased a lot of the pressure on myself and gave me the confidence to know that I could no longer consider myself disadvantage. Thus, whatever I submitted I knew it was to the best of my ability.’

But as the numbers of disabled students and the need for exam adjustment is continually increasing it is becoming ever more apparent that we need to find different and more inclusive methods for assessing disabled student’s learning. This is another example of where improvements to practices for disabled students would improve the experience for all students

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Inclusive LTA

During 2010/11, we continued to collaborate with the Centre for Educational Development, contributing to initiatives that aim to develop more inclusive learning, teaching and assessment practices. We are part of a group called DILTA (Diversity and Inclusion in Learning Teaching and Assessment). At one of the DEF meetings it was suggested that the University should pilot a project in 2 Schools, looking specifically at inclusive assessment. This is an area that we are very keen to explore.

Widening Participation

This year again we helped with the planning of the annual Spring School event that was jointly organised with West Yorkshire Aim Higher. The Spring School is a 2 day event, where Year 10-11 local school pupils with Specific Learning Difficulties and other impairments, come in to the University for a Taster Experience. This year we offered a ‘Media Workshop’ where the pupils took part in a number of activities including sport, theatre and an opportunity to make a short film with the Media Museum.

Eye / Reading Difficulties and Visual Disturbance (RDVS) Clinic

For many people with SpLD, reading skill and comfort can be improved by the use of tinted lenses, overlays or eye exercises. The Eye Clinic here at the University offers students a comprehensive diagnostic and Colorimeter Testing service. We have continued to work on ways to improve the referral process to the Eye Clinic.

We also hosted an event organised by the Yorkshire Dyslexia Tutors Forum in collaboration with staff from RDVS, to promote their work. Jim Gilchrist gave a fascinating overview of causes and effects of visual disturbance in people with SpLD. Around 30 people from inside and outside the University attended the event.

Working with the Equality Unit

In recent years, a closer and more effective working relationship has developed between the Equality Unit and the Disability Service. There are a number of possible reasons for this. One reason might relate to the review of the University equality structure and the introduction of staff networks, which has brought staff and students together and allowed us to make links around shared issues. We have played a key role in organising and promoting the n-Able disabled staff network and also participated in the Diversity Staff Network. The introduction in 2010 of the Equality Act has brought together and harmonised all the different strands of equality legislation. Through DEF and other networks, we have worked closely with staff in the Equality Team around developing the Equality Strategy and other policies and practice for the University.

In 2010/11 we took an active part in the Diversity Interventions Conference, presenting the work around Reasonable Adjustments in Placement to the delegates.

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Careers Internships

In the summer of 2010, we worked with the Career Development Service to pilot a series of internships which pro-actively targeted disabled graduates. Get Inspired Summer Internship Programme targeted undergraduate students in receipt of either DSA and/or student bursary and was very successful. We filled 18 internship places, fully funded by the University of Bradford. We received excellent feedback from both the employers and students involved with many stating they would love to be involved in future years. A number of the interns were disabled students and each year we aim to try and encourage a higher participation rate from this cohort.

Catherine Jandzio, the scheme’s co coordinator suggests that:

‘On reflection I feel that a number of interested disabled students may have needed a higher level of support in preparing for applying for the scheme to try and improve their confidence. We had a few students who would have been more than suitable for some of the internships on offer but they just didn’t feel confident enough to attend an interview with the employer. This is an area that we clearly need to do more work on to try and overcome some of these issues.’

Hate Crime Conference

In another exciting example of partnership working we formed part of a working committee with the Schools of Social and International Studies, Health and Management, the Equality Unit, the Bradford LGB Strategic Partnership and a trustee for Stop Hate UK, to plan and deliver a national conference on Hate Crime, which took place in July 2011.

Admissions Procedure

Up until the middle of 2009, we convened a regular meeting of the Pre-entry Marketing and Admissions for Disabled Students Working Group. The group was originally formed to respond to our legal obligations under the DDA 1995. We recognised the importance of making sure that all pre-entry and admissions activity did not present unnecessary barriers to disabled applicants. The working group also wanted to make sure that when marketing the University we were sending out a positive and inclusive message to potential disabled students.

For a range of reasons, the Working Group has not been active since 2009. We feel that although the working group made progress around identifying, considering and minimising potential barriers for disabled applicants, including streamlining the admissions procedure, there are further issues that we need to explore in this context. In particular, we need to examine why certain impairment groups such as students with hearing and visual impairments are generally underrepresented at the University and make sure that there are no inadvertent barriers around pre-entry and admissions for these and other disabled groups.

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4.2 Partnership working with other organisations and the local community

Bradford and District Strategic Disability Partnership.

We continue to represent the University on the above Partnership Board and attend regular meetings in the community.

Collaborative Working-Shared Interpreters Board

During 2009/10 the University participated in a number of city wide projects looking at collaborative working. We were involved on one of these projects to look at whether there was any scope to develop a way of working in which interpreters could be shared across a number of organisations. The project related to interpreting and translation provision (including British Sign Language (BSL) and Braille) and commissioning by partner agencies in the Bradford District.

The organisations involved included, Bradford Council, Incommunities, West Yorkshire Probation Trust, Bradford Council UNISON, Regional GMB, NHS Bradford and Airedale UNISON, NHS Bradford and Airedale, Bradford College and West Yorkshire Police.

At the end of the project it was recommended that the Collaborative programme Working Board should create a formal network that will meet on a quarterly basis to share information and best practice and appointing one of the partner agencies to act as co-ordinator / hub / single point of reference. The partner agencies involved have already informally identified common gaps and areas of concern which suggests that a collaborative approach would be beneficial. Meetings would be hosted in rotation by the partner agencies.

5. What next?

As well as our ‘usual business’ there are a number of areas for development that we aim to focus on for the next year, these include:

1. Over the next year or so we need to develop a system to make early contact with all students with a disability code, not registered with the Service. We hope that this will ensure that disabled students know what support that they are entitled to at the earliest possible stage. This should reduce the numbers of students who get into difficulty very late on, when it is too late for support and adjustments to have the most beneficial impact.

2. We need to develop our systems for capturing data, possibly through Business Objects so that we are able to get better and more accurate picture that can tell us a story about student progression and success.

3. We need to work closely with colleagues in the University who are developing the framework around supporting students on collaborative provision. This will help us to improve the service that we offer to students who are distance learners.

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4. We need to publicise the Disability Equality Forum, so that we can get more disabled students involved and engaged in improving and developing the Service and in developing and promoting inclusive practice throughout the University.

5. We need to continue working on ways of improving our communication with Schools and other Divisions. One of the ways that we have identified for doing this is to link the assessment reports that we currently produce and email to Schools, to SAINT so that the information can be extracted and circulated appropriately.

6. We need to think of a way of developing a pilot project around Inclusive Assessment that will help to reduce the numbers of adjusted exams that the University currently organises and will help to develop more effective and creative assessment opportunities for all students.

7. We need to work with colleagues in CDS to further target disabled graduates and improve preparation for summer intern scheme.

8. Re-invigorate the Marketing and Admissions Working Group to check and ensure that the ‘early messages’ that are going out to disabled applicants are positive and inclusive and that there are none of the current processes that put unnecessary barriers in the way for disabled applicants and students. This would also provide us with an opportunity to explore why we have groups of students with certain impairments, such as Deaf and hearing impaired students underrepresented in the University.

Finally, thanks to all the core team, the support team and colleagues throughout the University who have consistently demonstrated commitment, enthusiasm, skill, empathy and an amazing amount of hard work and made this such a successful year.

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