DDS Annual Report (2010/11)

Annual Report 2010/11

Gill Beech Operations Manager

Disability and Dyslexia Service 26.07.11

Overview The Disability and Dyslexia Service

(DDS) annual report for 2010/11

provides an update on delivery of the

service’s 5 year plan by highlighting

some key achievements of the service

during this academic year. Statistics

relating to disabled and dyslexic

students and an action plan for 2011/12

are also included.

Overall, the total number of disabled

students at Brunel has increased every

year. By the end of academic year

2010/11 there were 1277 students with

an enrolment record who had disclosed

a disability to the university.

Disabled student population 2007 – 2011

1000

1050

1100

1150

1200

1250

1300

2007/8 2008/9 2009/10 2010/11

Update on delivery of 5 year plan

1. Encouraging and supporting a vibrant research community

During 2010/11 a research study was carried out by a Disability Adviser in the team as a dissertation project for an MA in Disability Studies. The study focused on an analysis of 200 needs assessment reports for disabled students at Brunel. In addition, online questionnaires were completed by 121 disabled students to gather their perceptions of the support provided by the Disabled Students’ Allowances (DSA). The data gathered demonstrated evidence of a core package of support items recommended to the majority of disabled students applying for DSA, supplemented by additional items on an individual basis. The data also showed evidence that in some cases support recommended in a needs assessment was allocated according to a student’s impairment, rather than their stated needs. Student feedback was largely positive when describing the support provided by DSA. This feedback suggested that the system enables an effective means of providing disabled students with additional support during their time in higher education.

The DDS has continued to been involved in a research project with the School of Sport and Education. This project is called What Can We Do to Increase Representation of Visually Impaired Students at Brunel? During the last 12 months the project has assessed the current support, lifestyle and availability of information and equipment at Brunel for both current and future visually impaired students. The project has led to the development of a new website aimed at visually impaired students. Equipment has been purchased which has been reviewed by current students and will be available for visually impaired students to borrow in future.

DDS staff have attended conferences and events to enhance knowledge and keep up to date with current research. These have included the British Dyslexia Association (BBA) conference, National Association of Disability Practitioners (NADP) conferences, and the British Educational Training and Technology (BETT) exhibition. Members of the team have worked as board members of NADP and the Association of Dyslexia Specialists in Higher Education (ADSHE).

2. Enhancing the student experience

The DDS’s vision is to be an excellent student-focused advice and support service for all current and prospective disabled students.

In September 2010 the DDS organised two induction events for new disabled and dyslexic students. The Intro2uni day in early September was an opportunity for new students to meet the team and each other. This was the third year this event has run and approximately 30 new students attended. The annual Freshers’ week induction event attracted approximately 50 new students. Attendees were given information about the support available and were encouraged to book an appointment to see their Adviser to discuss their individual requirements.

DDS were involved in a number of induction training events including UBS contacts training, hall mentors induction, and several School induction talks.

At the start of the academic year 2010, the DDS launched a new project called ‘Disability Link Up’. This project was funded by the Widening Participation Department. The aim of the project was to provide a network of peer support to disabled and dyslexic students starting at Brunel University. 32 new disabled students were linked with 16 disabled student mentors from levels 2 and 3. The project adopted a flexible approach allowing different peer-mentoring models to develop according to the needs of the new students. This included

one-to-one mentoring, group mentoring and peer support groups. Feedback at the end of the project highlighted four principle areas where new students felt supported. These were integration into university; guidance with other sources of help within the university; personal and academic advice that they would not know how to get from anywhere else, and learning about what was expected on their course.

The DDS worked in partnership with the Union of Brunel Students to establish a network of disabled and dyslexic student representatives for the academic year 2010/11. This was the 2nd year of having student reps and the aim of this was to establish a forum for gathering information and engaging with representatives from the disabled and dyslexic student body. 5 of the 8 students who nominated themselves for this role sustained regular contact and communication with the Disability and Dyslexia Service. Although this was a small number of students, the issues highlighted and the input from these students was valuable and worthwhile.

The DDS continued to try and enhance the student experience by making changes to operational aspects of the service. In November 2010 a new part -time post of Assistant Disability Adviser was

recruited within the team. The primary purpose of this post was to provide an additional member of staff to deal with quick queries from students. This included queries relating to accommodation, parking, Disabled Students’ Allowances and ordering equipment. During the spring term of 2011, the service trialled extended opening hours each Tuesday and Thursday evening. The number of students using the service during the extended hours was low; however the benefit to those students was high. For example, students who were on full time placements were able to attend appointments and Study Skills sessions with Advisers.

A key performance indicator for the DDS in 2010/11 was to increase the number of students in receipt of Disabled Students’ Allowances. This was achieved with the number increasing from 642 in 2009/10 to 792* in 2010/11 (*provisional figure provided by SITS-support).

During 2010/11 approximately 50 hourly paid support staff were employed by the DDS to work on a 1:1 basis with disabled students. The total number of hours of support provided by the Support Worker Service increased from 11,140 hours during 2009/10 to 11,516 hours

in 2010/11. The Support Worker Service provides 1:1 support such as study skills, mentoring, note taking, study assistance, library assistance, amanuensis and non medical help.

Student feedback surveys were used to evaluate the provision of 1:1 study skills support and mentoring support. The feedback showed that the key areas students felt their study skills had improved in were planning and structuring essays, transferring ideas onto paper, and managing workload. The feedback on mentoring showed that 71.5% of the students said that they would describe the support as good or extremely helpful.

One student commented “The support that I did receive was helpful and made situations easier to deal with. It is a nice feeling knowing that there is someone to turn to in a time of need”. Another student said “Mentoring has changed my university experience, by having someone I can call upon whenever times get hard is the most re-assuring feeling ever!”.

“Mentoring has changed my university experience, by having someone I can call upon whenever times

get hard is the most re-assuring feeling ever!”

In December 2010, on International Day of Disabled People, the DDS and DASH (the local disability association in Hillingdon) ran an inclusive sports day in Brunel’s indoor sports hall. The event was a great success with about 50 people involved altogether. Participants included Brunel students, children from local schools, teachers, local day centre users, DASH members, Interactive, UBS sabbatical officers and staff within the DDS. A second event took place in March 2011, during the University’s One World Week. The sports available included boccia, disability golf, table top cricket, table tennis, judo, wheelchair basketball, street dancing and polybat.

3. Competing globally

Since winning the 2008 Times Higher Education Award for Outstanding

Support to Disabled Students, the DDS has received a lot of positive publicity and interest from other institutions, both in the UK and overseas. During 2010/11 the service has hosted overseas visitors from New Zealand and Qatar. Colleagues from Oxford University and the University College of Professional Studies (BPP) have also visited the Service. The reputation of the DDS and the support available for disabled students at Brunel is excellent within the UK disability sector. The DDS has continued to work with organisations such as the NADP, Dyslexia Action, the Higher Education Academy and DASH. The Disability and Dyslexia Service and the Widening Participation Office facilitated an event in March 2011 for disabled students attending local further education colleges, their parents and teachers. The

purpose of the event was to promote the benefits of coming to university to future disabled applicants. A similar day took place in March 2010 and feedback from attendees was excellent following both events.

4. Enhancing our enterprise culture

The DDS are particularly grateful for the support given by the Widening Participation Department during 2010/11. Funding from Widening Participation was used for the Disability Link Up project and fully funded an eight month contract for the post of Assistant Disability Adviser. All three Dyslexia Advisers within the team continue to hold current practicing certificates from PATOSS(Professional Association of Teachers of Students with Specific learning difficulties) enabling them to carry out

diagnostic assessments for dyslexia. A total of 36 diagnostic assessments were carried out in-house during 2010/11. This generated an income of £10,800 to the DDS from the Access to Learning Fund (ALF). As a result of a recent finance review, from 1st August 2011 the DDS will no longer be able to claim any funds from the ALF for in-house diagnostic assessments and therefore this income stream will no longer be available to DDS after this date. Following the restructure of the non-academic departments of the university, the DDS now sits within the Peoples’ Services directorate. From the start of the 2011/12 financial year, less emphasis will be placed on the income generation potential of the service. The focus will be on the provision of a high quality service to students and staff.

5. Providing an enabling environment The DDS regularly work in partnership with other departments and Schools to strive to provide an enabling environment for both disabled students and staff working with students. During 2010/11 the DDS provided expertise at many events and occasions of the university calendar. This included during induction week, Dyslexia Awareness Week, One World Week, ASK weeks, exam periods, graduation week and throughout the year on Open Days. The DDS also delivered a variety of staff development sessions such as ‘Dealing with distressed and disturbed students’, ‘Understanding anxiety and depression’, ‘Confidentiality and disclosure’, and ‘Understanding dyslexia’. Some disability awareness sessions were delivered to colleagues in departments such as the Library and Placement and Careers. Regular training sessions were also delivered to placement educators within the School of Health Sciences and Social Care. The DDS have worked with the Computing Department to increase the availability of assistive technology across campus. Jaws and Zoomtext are now available for students in labs across campus as well as Texthelp and Inspiration which have been available on the majority of student PCs for several years. Training in specialist assistive technology has taken place with technicians from Computing to ensure that the university does not rely on support from our sole Assistive Technology Adviser. During 2010/11 the opening hours of the Assistive Technology Centre were reviewed and extended. The centre is now open 7 days a week including until 10.30pm from Monday-Thursday. New computers have recently been purchased for the Assistive Technology Centre and the new build for these machines should be completed before the start of the new academic year.

Student Data

1. Overall disabled student population

During 2010/11 there were 1277 disabled and dyslexic students at Brunel University. This includes students with an enrolment record and a disclosed disability. This includes students who disclosed either to the University or confidentially just to the Disability and Dyslexia Service. The gender breakdown was 54% female, 46% male. The chart below shows the breakdown by type of impairment.

2. Number of students in receipt of Disabled Students’ Allowances (data received from SITS-Support):

The graph overleaf illustrates the statistics relating to Disabled Students’ Allowances over the last 5 academic years. The number of students claiming DSA has grown from 437 to 792 during this time period. This huge increase is a result of the DDS encouraging and assisting students to apply for DSA. The funding helps to pay for extra costs that disabled students may have during their studies as a direct result of their disability or specific learning difficulty. It provides equipment, assistive software, support workers, a general allowance for consumables and travel allowance, if needed.

Autistic spectrum

condition, 12Other disability, 51

Two or more

impairments, 42

Long standing

illness/health

condition, 168

Blind/visual

impairment, 25

Deaf/hearing

impairment, 30

Wheelchair

user/mobility

impairment, 67

Mental health

condition, 141Specific Learning

Disability, 741

Breakdown by type of impairment

Degree Class Disabled students

% of total Non disabled

students % of total

Not known

% of total

First 36 12.7% 369 12.5% - -

Upper second 126 44.5% 1323 44.7% 4 33.3%

Lower second 64 22.6% 780 26.4% 6 50%

Third 9 3.2% 93 3.1% 1 8.3%

Pass 3 1.1% 23 0.8% - -

Ordinary - - 9 0.3% - -

Dip in prof dev 13 4.6% 101 3.4% - -

Cert in HE 16 5.6% 167 5.6% - -

Dip in HE 15 5.3% 84 2.8% 1 8.3%

Grad cert in law 1 0.4% 11 0.4% - -

Total awards 283 100% 2960 100% 12 100%

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

2006/7 2007/8 2008/9 2009/10 2010/11

The student has a disability and is in receipt of DSA.

The student has a disability and is not in receipt of DSA.

The student has a disability but information about DSA is not known/not sought.

Disabled Students’ Allowances

3. Undergraduate degree classifications

Analysis of the awards data for 2009/10 shows that disabled students are achieving awards at a comparable level to their non disabled peers. It can be suggested therefore that being disabled is not a significant factor impacting on the degree classification achieved at Brunel.

Email, 4955

Pre-booked

appointments,

1435

Screening (for

dyslexia), 248

Drop in

appointments, 307 Diagnostic

assessments, 36

Phonecall, 1708

Other 'face to

face', 1443

0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

35.00%

40.00%

45.00%

First Upper second Lower second Third Pass Ordinary

Disabled students Non disabled students

Undergraduate bachelor degree classifications 2009/10

4. DDS contact with students

The DDS was open to students all year round from Mon-Fri, 9-4.30pm. In addition during spring term the service was open until 6.30pm every Tuesday and Thursday. The pie chart below shows contact that students had with the DDS during 2010/11. This does not include the 11,516 hours of support provided by the in house Support Workers Service. It also does not include 211 diagnostic assessments for specific learning difficulties which were carried out by external psychologists or specialist tutors following a referral from the DDS.

Action plan for 20011/12

During 2011/12 the DDS will continue to provide an excellent advice, information and support service for disabled students. In addition to this, the following are

some key actions for the next 12 months:

Establish an information and advice service for disabled staff

Restructure the DDS and the West London Assessment Centre to enable a

closer working relationship between the two services.

Work with Computing Department to develop a new database system to

meet the needs of the service and improve efficiency of working methods.

Run two induction events for new students – ‘Intro 2 Uni’ day on Sep 6th and

Freshers’ Week induction event on 21st Sep 2011.

Work with Staff Development and individual Schools to implement a

programme of disability awareness training.

Continue the development of online assistive technology training materials for

students.

Continue work with NADP to assist with establishment of national

accreditation for disability practitioners within HE institutions.

Work in partnership with the Union of Brunel Students (UBS) to establish a new group of disabled and dyslexic students’ representatives. It is also hoped that UBS and DDS can work closely together to organise and run more

inclusive sports events, especially in the run up to the Paralympics in 2012.

Gill Beech Operations Manager

Disability and Dyslexia Service 26.07.11

Disability and Dyslexia Service Tel: 01895 265213 | Email: [email protected] | Web: www.brunel.ac.uk/disability