Disabled Students’ Allowance.

Baroness Garden of Frognal Excerpts

Monday 2nd November 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD)]

My Lords, I join other noble Lords in thanking my noble friend Lord Addington for introducing this debate and giving us an opportunity to discuss the disabled students’ allowance. I feel sure that, given longer notice, many more of your Lordships would have been drawn into discussion of such an important issue.

My noble friend is a long-standing champion of disability rights. He has pursued measures that have improved the rights and opportunities of those who have to overcome disability before they can prove their talents and achieve their ambitions. His focus on dyslexia is ever more relevant; that unseen disability afflicts more people than was recognised in days gone by, and it is always heartening to hear of the achievements of people who have had to struggle from a young age to access learning, with barriers not faced by their non-dyslexic peers. My noble friend is a tenacious champion on their behalf.

My noble friend Lady Thomas also speaks compellingly on behalf of those with disabilities. As we know, the disabled students’ allowance is a non-means-tested, non-repayable grant provided through Student Finance England to help eligible higher education students pay the extra costs incurred as a direct result of a disability, long-term health condition, mental health condition or specific learning difficulty, such as dyslexia or dyspraxia. It is a wide-ranging allowance, which is one of its great benefits, and it takes into account the very wide variety of disabilities that students may have. It has been invaluable in encouraging students to succeed, because those covered by it may be every bit as intelligent and ambitious as others, but may be able to achieve their potential only with the help of additional personal, technical or financial support. The DSA is the means to that end. My noble friend Lord Addington made a powerful case about the imperative for equipment to be of good quality.

For this debate, we have received many helpful and informative briefings from the Library and from many individuals and organisations who have direct experience with disabled students and who know the disruption that changes may bring. Widespread concerns have been expressed at the transfer of certain responsibilities to institutions. The National Union of Students—which the noble Lord, Lord Lipsey, has already referred to as a powerful lobbying group—has set out its essential criteria for support for disabled students, which should be,

“high quality, timely, individualised, consistent ... and with appropriate and speedy mechanisms for appeal and redress”.

Could the Minister say how the Government propose to monitor the support against these criteria, given the numbers of higher education institutions which each will be interpreting the needs of students in their own way? Some will face the challenges of having insufficient financial resources or expertise to deal with changes to the system.

There are further complications with collegiate universities, where we have seen individual cases in which problems have arisen. Individual colleges will be dealing with small numbers of applicants and there may be significant variations in funding depending on the relative wealth of the college. What advice and support will come from the Government to ensure fairness in any new provision?

We have raised before in your Lordships’ House our concerns over support for part-time higher education. This provision plays a key part in enabling people to access high-level skills and increase their personal fulfilment, as well as their contribution to the economy.

We hear from the Open University—which supports around 20,000 students with at least one disability—of its concern that reductions in funding for disabled students will have a considerable effect on the opportunities for part-time students. In addition, there is a deterrent factor if there is uncertainty about the support that might be available to them. The Open University has done a magnificent job over years in providing opportunities for all sorts of people who may have missed out the first time round or may have found more difficulty in accessing mainstream education in different ways.

The discussion of changes may already be acting as a deterrent to those who have enough challenges to overcome without also being unable to plan ahead for future studies. Disability Rights UK has already identified that more disabled people are questioning the wisdom of going to university.

As the noble Lord, Lord Lipsey, set out so clearly and movingly, many arts-based institutions have higher proportions of students eligible for DSA, whose disability in one way can result in increased talent in another, such as art or music. They could well be disproportionately affected. We also know that the creative industries are a source of immense pride to this country, as well as being of great benefit to our culture and to the economy. What reassurances can the Minister give to such institutions that they will not find difficulty in enabling their students to succeed?

We have evidence that it is in all our interests to enable disabled students to continue their studies and gain qualifications to equip them all the better for competitive life. It was striking to read the research carried out by the Equality Challenge Unit, which showed that the prospects for disabled graduates are significantly better than those for non-graduates. The figures for 2012 showed that 71% of disabled graduates gained employment, compared with only 42% of disabled non-graduates, and that is with all the benefits of skill-based qualifications and so on that might have been available to them. Surely it is in all our interests to ensure that provision is available for those with talent and commitment who need some specialist help to get them over the hurdles.

It was reassuring to hear that maximum grants for full-time, part-time and postgraduate students with disabilities will be maintained at 2015-16 levels into 2016-17, but students and institutions need to plan ahead, so reassurance for another year is only a temporary solution. Can the Minister reassure the House that no full-scale changes will be made until an impact assessment has been undertaken? As has already been indicated, it will be a false economy if reforms to these allowances turn out not to be the improvements the Government are hoping for, but result in an increase in disabled students unable to study or to work. I look forward to the Minister’s reply.