BIS update Equality Analysis on Disabled Students Allowance

BIS updated the Equality Analysis on thechanges to Disabled Students’ Allowance on 16th December 14. 
Some of the statistics have been updated since the October version (section 19).  

The most significant addition to the content is at section 70:

“Consultation with stakeholders on this proposal has highlighted that the complexity of a student’s Specific Learning Difficulty is related primarily to the impact of the learning environment, rather than the severity of the impairment. Whilst it is the case that inclusive learning environments and anticipatory reasonable adjustments will remove the reliance on DSAs for some students with a Specific Learning Difficulty, this is unlikely to relate to the severity of their learning difficulty. Therefore, for the purposes of these reforms, students with Specific Learning Difficulties are assumed to be part of the wider disabled student body that will be affected by the Non-Medical help proposal and will not be treated as a distinct group. “

This new point appears somewhat at odds with the one above it, which states that students with ‘mild SpLD’ will be assumed to be a distinct group:

“We propose that DSAs funding remains available to students presenting with moderate to severe levels of Specific Learning Difficulties, as evidence by the range of tests, and that institutions make sufficient anticipatory and individual reasonable adjustments to meet the needs of their students presenting with a mild Specific Learning Difficulty.”

This does not change the intention of the original ‘DSA modernisation’ proposal that “Students with Specific Learning Difficulties will continue to receive support through DSAs where their support needs are considered to be more complex.” The Equality Analysis of October 14 clarified that ‘more complex’ means moderate to severe. The December 14 addition does not remove the university’s responsibility for meeting the needs of students with mild SpLD.

The ‘non-medical help proposal’ referred to in section 70 comes into force in academic year 16/17 and is that “institutions to provide any individual lower level support needed by disabled students” , effectively cutting  ten types of support from DSA funding (section 64 and 65). What the Equality Analysis confirms is that all disabled students will be affected by this cut – a student with severe dyslexia will not be able to have a note-taker funded through DSA, and neither will a student with a severe visual, hearing, physical or mental health impairment.