Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether any additional training requirements have been put in place for students in receipt of Disabled Students Allowance following changes made to the technology packages available to those students.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)

The department engaged with disability experts who support disabled students to gather their feedback and insights on the decision to remove non-specialist spelling and grammar software from Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) funding.

The department does not expect that students will be negatively impacted by the changes, because specific technology packages will no longer be funded where free-to-access versions, with the required functionality, are available to meet students’ disability-related support needs. Specialist spelling and grammar software will continue to be funded where a robust disability-related justification is provided. Assistive technology training and aftercare support for any non-specialist basic spelling and grammar software agreed in a student’s needs assessment report will continue to be funded through the DSA.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government which (1) disability, and (2) student groups were consulted ahead of changes to the technology packages available to students in receipt of Disabled Students Allowance.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)

The department engaged with disability experts who support disabled students to gather their feedback and insights on the decision to remove non-specialist spelling and grammar software from Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) funding.

The department does not expect that students will be negatively impacted by the changes, because specific technology packages will no longer be funded where free-to-access versions, with the required functionality, are available to meet students’ disability-related support needs. Specialist spelling and grammar software will continue to be funded where a robust disability-related justification is provided. Assistive technology training and aftercare support for any non-specialist basic spelling and grammar software agreed in a student’s needs assessment report will continue to be funded through the DSA.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that students are not negatively affected by changes to the Disabled Students Allowance selection of technical support packages and systems.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)

The department engaged with disability experts who support disabled students to gather their feedback and insights on the decision to remove non-specialist spelling and grammar software from Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) funding.

The department does not expect that students will be negatively impacted by the changes, because specific technology packages will no longer be funded where free-to-access versions, with the required functionality, are available to meet students’ disability-related support needs. Specialist spelling and grammar software will continue to be funded where a robust disability-related justification is provided. Assistive technology training and aftercare support for any non-specialist basic spelling and grammar software agreed in a student’s needs assessment report will continue to be funded through the DSA.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what criteria they have for provision of paid-for software packages from free or built-in technology systems in the Disabled Students Allowance, and whether these criteria take into account capacity to train students to use new systems.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)

The department has conducted an Equality Impact Assessment on this policy change and has identified the risk that this decision may have a negative impact on some disabled students who might prefer paid-for spelling and grammar software is mitigated by the availability of free versions of spelling and grammar software that provide equivalent functionality for the types of support that are in scope of the Disabled Students' Allowance (DSA). The DSA will still fund spelling and grammar software in exceptional circumstances where there is specific need and a robust disability-related justification is provided.

The department conducted a detailed review of the spelling and grammar functionality available in Microsoft Office, computer operating systems, free software products and paid-for software products. This review concluded that the spelling and grammar functionality available in products that students can access for free was similar to that available in paid-for products. While some of the paid-for products had additional features such as plagiarism checkers, these are not in scope for DSA funding, given they are of potential benefit to all students.

Assistive technology training and aftercare support for any non-specialist basic spelling and grammar software agreed in a student’s needs assessment report will continue to be funded through DSA.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of withdrawing funding for spelling and grammar software from the Disabled Students Allowance on students.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)

The department has conducted an Equality Impact Assessment on this policy change and has identified the risk that this decision may have a negative impact on some disabled students who might prefer paid-for spelling and grammar software is mitigated by the availability of free versions of spelling and grammar software that provide equivalent functionality for the types of support that are in scope of the Disabled Students' Allowance (DSA). The DSA will still fund spelling and grammar software in exceptional circumstances where there is specific need and a robust disability-related justification is provided.

The department conducted a detailed review of the spelling and grammar functionality available in Microsoft Office, computer operating systems, free software products and paid-for software products. This review concluded that the spelling and grammar functionality available in products that students can access for free was similar to that available in paid-for products. While some of the paid-for products had additional features such as plagiarism checkers, these are not in scope for DSA funding, given they are of potential benefit to all students.

Assistive technology training and aftercare support for any non-specialist basic spelling and grammar software agreed in a student’s needs assessment report will continue to be funded through DSA.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they analyse the use of assistive technology to ensure there is a continuity of supply offered to students and workers throughout their lifetimes, and if so, which department is responsible for the analysis.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

In 2022 the Disability Unit within the Cabinet Office contracted the Global Disability Innovation Hub to complete a needs and capacity assessment of Assistive and Accessible Technology (ATech).

This research sought to improve our understanding of the country’s capacity to finance, procure and provide ATech; identifying system inefficiencies and maximising the greatest positive impact on the life outcomes for individual ATech users.

The research, “Assistive Technology Changes Lives: an assessment of AT need and capacity in England” was published in 2023.

This research, alongside our engagement with disability stakeholders and Atech experts, has enabled us to understand some of the biggest barriers that disabled people face in accessing Atech to support them into employment and wider society.

Insights from this research have recently fed into the DWP Pathways to Work Spring Green Paper, which announced that the government is going to develop and deliver a digital resource that will help raise awareness of existing Atech and provide guidance on how it can be used to support disabled people. We will also set up an Atech expert working group to identify and, where possible, develop solutions to the barriers disabled people face when trying to use and access Atech.

Found: evidence Monday 31 March 2025 3.45 pm Watch the meeting Members present: Baroness Rock (The Chair); Lord Addington

Found: evidence Monday 31 March 2025 2.45 pm Watch the meeting Members present: Baroness Rock (The Chair); Lord Addington

Found: evidence Monday 24 March 2025 4 pm Watch the meeting Members present: Baroness Rock (The Chair); Lord Addington

Found: evidence Monday 24 March 2025 3 pm Watch the meeting Members present: Baroness Rock (The Chair); Lord Addington