Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve access to higher (a) education and (b) qualifications for people with disabilities.

The Higher Education and Research Act (HERA) 2017 established the Office for Students (OfS) as the regulator for higher education (HE). It has a statutory duty to have regard to the need to promote equality of opportunity in relation to the whole student lifecycle for disadvantaged and traditionally under-represented groups, including not only access, but also student success and progression.

In November 2021, the department issued guidance to the OfS, asking it to refocus the access and participation regime to create a system that supports young people from disadvantaged backgrounds throughout their education.

All approved providers who are intending to charge fees above the basic amount are required to fully rewrite their Access and Participation Plans (APPs) and to have these in place for September 2025. This work has started, with the first wave of HE providers having already submitted their revised plans to the OfS, to be in place by September 2024.

In March 2023, the OfS launched the Equality of Opportunity Risk Register (EORR). This will empower HE providers to deliver interventions for groups of students least likely to experience equal opportunity in HE settings by highlighting 12 key sector risks across the student lifecycle (access, attainment and progression) and the groups most likely to experience these. HE providers will be expected to refer to the EORR when writing their own APPs.

The department works with a range of stakeholders to ensure that it is aware of any issues or barriers which students with disabilities may face.

The department has been working with the Department for Work and Pensions’ to pilot an Access to Work Adjustment planner in Universities. The planner will support on-going discussions and assessments on how to support disabled students and ease the transition from university into employment by reducing the need for repeated health assessments when starting a new job.

The planner will now be rolled out nationally and be offered to students who already receive extra support while studying at university, capturing information about their condition and the adjustments they already benefit from, avoiding repetitive disclosures when it comes to applying for the grant once they start work.