Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to launch a consultation on (a) reducing the availability of Disabled Students Allowance assistive technology packages and products and (b) removing the needs assessment element of applications for Disabled Students Allowance.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is not intending to launch a consultation on reducing the availability of assistive technology support packages and products provided through Disabled Students’ Allowance or the removal of the needs assessment element of applications.
The department has not announced any changes to these areas of the Disabled Students’ Allowance.
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of students in receipt of Disabled Students' Allowance spelling and grammar assistive technology packages were required to undertake a needs assessment in each year since 2015.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The average waiting time for a needs assessment from the date of application to the date of the assessment being carried out comprises the time taken by the Student Loans Company (SLC) to process an application and then the time taken by the contracted suppliers Capita and Study Tech to process the needs assessment.
The time taken by SLC to process an application is published online at GOV.UK here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/sfe-current-application-timescales. The latest weekly update, for February, shows that the average time taken for SLC to process an application, shown under the heading “a DSA application”, is currently 7 working days. The average time taken for the contracted suppliers to offer and complete the needs assessment is currently 28 days. Each supplier has been set two individual KPIs to cover the offer and completion of the needs assessment. These are KPI 1, “Booking of a Needs Assessment Appointment (Minimum of 95% of offer of needs assessment appointment made within 2 working days of referral of customer by SLC)” and KPI 2, “Completion of a Needs Assessment (Minimum of 95% of needs assessment interviews should be offered and completed within 7 working days of successful contact (excluding those where the customer has requested an alternative date))”.
Following completion of the needs assessment, both suppliers are required to return the needs assessment report to SLC for review within 5 workings days, as stipulated by KPI 3, “Minimum of 95% of NARs made available to SLC within 5 working days of when needs assessments undertaken (excluding those where the customer has requested to review the needs assessment report)”. It is currently taking suppliers on average 14 days to return the needs assessment report to SLC. The needs assessment is then reviewed by SLC, following which confirmation of entitlement is communicated to the customer on the DSA2 letter. It is currently taking SLC 10 working days to complete this stage of the journey, as noted on the GOV.UK page under the heading “a Needs Assessment report”.
Information on the suppliers’ performance against their KPIs is published online on a quarterly basis here: https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/ds. The next update will be published at the end of February.
All students applying for Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) are required to have a needs assessment. This means that assistive software for spelling and grammar support has only been awarded when recommended in a needs assessment and agreed by SLC.
Data on the number of students awarded specific assistive software for spelling and grammar support through DSA for the time periods specified in the question is not immediately available, but in the 2023 calendar year this was around 36,000.
A list of the assistive software products for spelling and grammar support that have previously been awarded through DSA is published online here: https://www.practitioners.slc.co.uk/exchange-blog/2017/april/dsa-product-review-process/. This list is for administrative purposes only. Products that are not on the list can also be funded through DSA if they are recommended by a needs assessor and agreed by SLC. Overall, agreed spend on spelling and grammar software through DSA is in the region of £4.5 million to £5 million annually. The total spend on each software product within that varies, as it depends on which products are recommended by needs assessors as being most suitable for students’ needs. As an illustration, in the 2023 calendar year, around 80% of total spend was on non-specialist grammar and spelling products, with Grammarly Premium making up 53% of total spend and Global Autocorrect 24% of total spend. Around 20% of total spend was on specialist grammar and spelling products for specific subject areas such as medicine and law, with Medincle products making up 16% of total spend.
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average waiting time was for a needs assessments for Disabled Students Allowance applications from the date of application to the date of (a) the assessment being carried out and (b) entitlement letters being issued in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The average waiting time for a needs assessment from the date of application to the date of the assessment being carried out comprises the time taken by the Student Loans Company (SLC) to process an application and then the time taken by the contracted suppliers Capita and Study Tech to process the needs assessment.
The time taken by SLC to process an application is published online at GOV.UK here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/sfe-current-application-timescales. The latest weekly update, for February, shows that the average time taken for SLC to process an application, shown under the heading “a DSA application”, is currently 7 working days. The average time taken for the contracted suppliers to offer and complete the needs assessment is currently 28 days. Each supplier has been set two individual KPIs to cover the offer and completion of the needs assessment. These are KPI 1, “Booking of a Needs Assessment Appointment (Minimum of 95% of offer of needs assessment appointment made within 2 working days of referral of customer by SLC)” and KPI 2, “Completion of a Needs Assessment (Minimum of 95% of needs assessment interviews should be offered and completed within 7 working days of successful contact (excluding those where the customer has requested an alternative date))”.
Following completion of the needs assessment, both suppliers are required to return the needs assessment report to SLC for review within 5 workings days, as stipulated by KPI 3, “Minimum of 95% of NARs made available to SLC within 5 working days of when needs assessments undertaken (excluding those where the customer has requested to review the needs assessment report)”. It is currently taking suppliers on average 14 days to return the needs assessment report to SLC. The needs assessment is then reviewed by SLC, following which confirmation of entitlement is communicated to the customer on the DSA2 letter. It is currently taking SLC 10 working days to complete this stage of the journey, as noted on the GOV.UK page under the heading “a Needs Assessment report”.
Information on the suppliers’ performance against their KPIs is published online on a quarterly basis here: https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/ds. The next update will be published at the end of February.
All students applying for Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) are required to have a needs assessment. This means that assistive software for spelling and grammar support has only been awarded when recommended in a needs assessment and agreed by SLC.
Data on the number of students awarded specific assistive software for spelling and grammar support through DSA for the time periods specified in the question is not immediately available, but in the 2023 calendar year this was around 36,000.
A list of the assistive software products for spelling and grammar support that have previously been awarded through DSA is published online here: https://www.practitioners.slc.co.uk/exchange-blog/2017/april/dsa-product-review-process/. This list is for administrative purposes only. Products that are not on the list can also be funded through DSA if they are recommended by a needs assessor and agreed by SLC. Overall, agreed spend on spelling and grammar software through DSA is in the region of £4.5 million to £5 million annually. The total spend on each software product within that varies, as it depends on which products are recommended by needs assessors as being most suitable for students’ needs. As an illustration, in the 2023 calendar year, around 80% of total spend was on non-specialist grammar and spelling products, with Grammarly Premium making up 53% of total spend and Global Autocorrect 24% of total spend. Around 20% of total spend was on specialist grammar and spelling products for specific subject areas such as medicine and law, with Medincle products making up 16% of total spend.
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many students in receipt of Disabled Students Allowance have been provided with spelling and grammar assistive technology packages (a) as of 5 February 2025 and (b) in each year since 2015.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The average waiting time for a needs assessment from the date of application to the date of the assessment being carried out comprises the time taken by the Student Loans Company (SLC) to process an application and then the time taken by the contracted suppliers Capita and Study Tech to process the needs assessment.
The time taken by SLC to process an application is published online at GOV.UK here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/sfe-current-application-timescales. The latest weekly update, for February, shows that the average time taken for SLC to process an application, shown under the heading “a DSA application”, is currently 7 working days. The average time taken for the contracted suppliers to offer and complete the needs assessment is currently 28 days. Each supplier has been set two individual KPIs to cover the offer and completion of the needs assessment. These are KPI 1, “Booking of a Needs Assessment Appointment (Minimum of 95% of offer of needs assessment appointment made within 2 working days of referral of customer by SLC)” and KPI 2, “Completion of a Needs Assessment (Minimum of 95% of needs assessment interviews should be offered and completed within 7 working days of successful contact (excluding those where the customer has requested an alternative date))”.
Following completion of the needs assessment, both suppliers are required to return the needs assessment report to SLC for review within 5 workings days, as stipulated by KPI 3, “Minimum of 95% of NARs made available to SLC within 5 working days of when needs assessments undertaken (excluding those where the customer has requested to review the needs assessment report)”. It is currently taking suppliers on average 14 days to return the needs assessment report to SLC. The needs assessment is then reviewed by SLC, following which confirmation of entitlement is communicated to the customer on the DSA2 letter. It is currently taking SLC 10 working days to complete this stage of the journey, as noted on the GOV.UK page under the heading “a Needs Assessment report”.
Information on the suppliers’ performance against their KPIs is published online on a quarterly basis here: https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/ds. The next update will be published at the end of February.
All students applying for Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) are required to have a needs assessment. This means that assistive software for spelling and grammar support has only been awarded when recommended in a needs assessment and agreed by SLC.
Data on the number of students awarded specific assistive software for spelling and grammar support through DSA for the time periods specified in the question is not immediately available, but in the 2023 calendar year this was around 36,000.
A list of the assistive software products for spelling and grammar support that have previously been awarded through DSA is published online here: https://www.practitioners.slc.co.uk/exchange-blog/2017/april/dsa-product-review-process/. This list is for administrative purposes only. Products that are not on the list can also be funded through DSA if they are recommended by a needs assessor and agreed by SLC. Overall, agreed spend on spelling and grammar software through DSA is in the region of £4.5 million to £5 million annually. The total spend on each software product within that varies, as it depends on which products are recommended by needs assessors as being most suitable for students’ needs. As an illustration, in the 2023 calendar year, around 80% of total spend was on non-specialist grammar and spelling products, with Grammarly Premium making up 53% of total spend and Global Autocorrect 24% of total spend. Around 20% of total spend was on specialist grammar and spelling products for specific subject areas such as medicine and law, with Medincle products making up 16% of total spend.
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many assistive technology products funded via the Disabled Students Allowance for spelling and grammar support require a needs assessment before being approved.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The average waiting time for a needs assessment from the date of application to the date of the assessment being carried out comprises the time taken by the Student Loans Company (SLC) to process an application and then the time taken by the contracted suppliers Capita and Study Tech to process the needs assessment.
The time taken by SLC to process an application is published online at GOV.UK here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/sfe-current-application-timescales. The latest weekly update, for February, shows that the average time taken for SLC to process an application, shown under the heading “a DSA application”, is currently 7 working days. The average time taken for the contracted suppliers to offer and complete the needs assessment is currently 28 days. Each supplier has been set two individual KPIs to cover the offer and completion of the needs assessment. These are KPI 1, “Booking of a Needs Assessment Appointment (Minimum of 95% of offer of needs assessment appointment made within 2 working days of referral of customer by SLC)” and KPI 2, “Completion of a Needs Assessment (Minimum of 95% of needs assessment interviews should be offered and completed within 7 working days of successful contact (excluding those where the customer has requested an alternative date))”.
Following completion of the needs assessment, both suppliers are required to return the needs assessment report to SLC for review within 5 workings days, as stipulated by KPI 3, “Minimum of 95% of NARs made available to SLC within 5 working days of when needs assessments undertaken (excluding those where the customer has requested to review the needs assessment report)”. It is currently taking suppliers on average 14 days to return the needs assessment report to SLC. The needs assessment is then reviewed by SLC, following which confirmation of entitlement is communicated to the customer on the DSA2 letter. It is currently taking SLC 10 working days to complete this stage of the journey, as noted on the GOV.UK page under the heading “a Needs Assessment report”.
Information on the suppliers’ performance against their KPIs is published online on a quarterly basis here: https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/ds. The next update will be published at the end of February.
All students applying for Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) are required to have a needs assessment. This means that assistive software for spelling and grammar support has only been awarded when recommended in a needs assessment and agreed by SLC.
Data on the number of students awarded specific assistive software for spelling and grammar support through DSA for the time periods specified in the question is not immediately available, but in the 2023 calendar year this was around 36,000.
A list of the assistive software products for spelling and grammar support that have previously been awarded through DSA is published online here: https://www.practitioners.slc.co.uk/exchange-blog/2017/april/dsa-product-review-process/. This list is for administrative purposes only. Products that are not on the list can also be funded through DSA if they are recommended by a needs assessor and agreed by SLC. Overall, agreed spend on spelling and grammar software through DSA is in the region of £4.5 million to £5 million annually. The total spend on each software product within that varies, as it depends on which products are recommended by needs assessors as being most suitable for students’ needs. As an illustration, in the 2023 calendar year, around 80% of total spend was on non-specialist grammar and spelling products, with Grammarly Premium making up 53% of total spend and Global Autocorrect 24% of total spend. Around 20% of total spend was on specialist grammar and spelling products for specific subject areas such as medicine and law, with Medincle products making up 16% of total spend.
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many assistive technology products for spelling and grammar support are funded under the Disabled Students Allowance; and what the total cost to the public purse is of each product.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The average waiting time for a needs assessment from the date of application to the date of the assessment being carried out comprises the time taken by the Student Loans Company (SLC) to process an application and then the time taken by the contracted suppliers Capita and Study Tech to process the needs assessment.
The time taken by SLC to process an application is published online at GOV.UK here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/sfe-current-application-timescales. The latest weekly update, for February, shows that the average time taken for SLC to process an application, shown under the heading “a DSA application”, is currently 7 working days. The average time taken for the contracted suppliers to offer and complete the needs assessment is currently 28 days. Each supplier has been set two individual KPIs to cover the offer and completion of the needs assessment. These are KPI 1, “Booking of a Needs Assessment Appointment (Minimum of 95% of offer of needs assessment appointment made within 2 working days of referral of customer by SLC)” and KPI 2, “Completion of a Needs Assessment (Minimum of 95% of needs assessment interviews should be offered and completed within 7 working days of successful contact (excluding those where the customer has requested an alternative date))”.
Following completion of the needs assessment, both suppliers are required to return the needs assessment report to SLC for review within 5 workings days, as stipulated by KPI 3, “Minimum of 95% of NARs made available to SLC within 5 working days of when needs assessments undertaken (excluding those where the customer has requested to review the needs assessment report)”. It is currently taking suppliers on average 14 days to return the needs assessment report to SLC. The needs assessment is then reviewed by SLC, following which confirmation of entitlement is communicated to the customer on the DSA2 letter. It is currently taking SLC 10 working days to complete this stage of the journey, as noted on the GOV.UK page under the heading “a Needs Assessment report”.
Information on the suppliers’ performance against their KPIs is published online on a quarterly basis here: https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/ds. The next update will be published at the end of February.
All students applying for Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) are required to have a needs assessment. This means that assistive software for spelling and grammar support has only been awarded when recommended in a needs assessment and agreed by SLC.
Data on the number of students awarded specific assistive software for spelling and grammar support through DSA for the time periods specified in the question is not immediately available, but in the 2023 calendar year this was around 36,000.
A list of the assistive software products for spelling and grammar support that have previously been awarded through DSA is published online here: https://www.practitioners.slc.co.uk/exchange-blog/2017/april/dsa-product-review-process/. This list is for administrative purposes only. Products that are not on the list can also be funded through DSA if they are recommended by a needs assessor and agreed by SLC. Overall, agreed spend on spelling and grammar software through DSA is in the region of £4.5 million to £5 million annually. The total spend on each software product within that varies, as it depends on which products are recommended by needs assessors as being most suitable for students’ needs. As an illustration, in the 2023 calendar year, around 80% of total spend was on non-specialist grammar and spelling products, with Grammarly Premium making up 53% of total spend and Global Autocorrect 24% of total spend. Around 20% of total spend was on specialist grammar and spelling products for specific subject areas such as medicine and law, with Medincle products making up 16% of total spend.
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential equality impact of changes to the Disabled Students Allowance on (a) the provision of assistive technology support packages and products, and (b) the removal of the needs assessments from the eligibility criteria.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department has not announced changes to the provision of assistive technology support packages and products through Disabled Students’ Allowances or the removal of needs assessments from the eligibility criteria.
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had on Regulation 9A of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 with (a) Non-Departmental Public Bodies of his Department, (b) Government Executive Agencies, (c) Care Rights UK and (d) other external stakeholders.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Care Quality Commission Fundamental Standard on Visiting and Accompanying (Regulation 9A) came into force on 6 April 2024 to strengthen the requirements for health and care providers to facilitate visiting, including during pandemics, as long as it is safe to do so. Visiting is essential to supporting the health and wellbeing of patients and residents, and enabling loved ones to provide support and advocacy.
We continue to monitor the situation regarding visiting through Capacity Tracker data and intelligence from external partners. We will conduct a review of Regulation 9A from April 2025, 12 months on from the legislation coming into force, to assess whether the legislation has been effective in addressing concerns about visiting in health and care settings. In conducting the review, we will draw on a wide range of evidence, including data, intelligence, and the perspectives of people and organisations with an interest.
Depending on the outcome of the review we will consider whether further action is needed.
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of Regulation 9A of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 in protecting the mental health and wellbeing of vulnerable people in health and social care settings during pandemic disease outbreaks.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Care Quality Commission Fundamental Standard on Visiting and Accompanying (Regulation 9A) came into force on 6 April 2024 to strengthen the requirements for health and care providers to facilitate visiting, including during pandemics, as long as it is safe to do so. Visiting is essential to supporting the health and wellbeing of patients and residents, and enabling loved ones to provide support and advocacy.
We continue to monitor the situation regarding visiting through Capacity Tracker data and intelligence from external partners. We will conduct a review of Regulation 9A from April 2025, 12 months on from the legislation coming into force, to assess whether the legislation has been effective in addressing concerns about visiting in health and care settings. In conducting the review, we will draw on a wide range of evidence, including data, intelligence, and the perspectives of people and organisations with an interest.
Depending on the outcome of the review we will consider whether further action is needed.
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential risk of introducing a legal right for vulnerable people in health and social care settings to be visited by close family members during (a) pandemic disease outbreaks and (b) other healthcare crises.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Care Quality Commission Fundamental Standard on Visiting and Accompanying (Regulation 9A) came into force on 6 April 2024 to strengthen the requirements for health and care providers to facilitate visiting, including during pandemics, as long as it is safe to do so. Visiting is essential to supporting the health and wellbeing of patients and residents, and enabling loved ones to provide support and advocacy.
We continue to monitor the situation regarding visiting through Capacity Tracker data and intelligence from external partners. We will conduct a review of Regulation 9A from April 2025, 12 months on from the legislation coming into force, to assess whether the legislation has been effective in addressing concerns about visiting in health and care settings. In conducting the review, we will draw on a wide range of evidence, including data, intelligence, and the perspectives of people and organisations with an interest.
Depending on the outcome of the review we will consider whether further action is needed.