The Department for Education ran a consultation from April-July 2024 on changes to Non-Medical Help for disabled students in higher education. Non-Medical Help (NMH) encompasses in-person support provided to help disabled students' participate and succeed in Higher Education.
Specialist non-medical help provision is currently delivered via the Government
Before 2014, all NMH support was provided to students not by universities, but through the Disabled Students' Allowance (DSA), administered by Student Finance.
In 2016 this changed, with responsibility for providing some NMH support and the cost of accessible accommodation transferring to universities themselves. DSA, however, continue to provide specialist NMH support directly to students.
The Government is proposing that universities take responsibility for this support instead
The proposal set out in the 2024 Department for Education consultation was for the responsibility for providing all NMH support, including specialist support, to be transferred to universities, with the Government ceasing to have any direct responsibility.
The consultation sought the views of Higher Education providers, students, disability charities and others to better understand the impact such a change would have and whether it should be pursued.
Reasons given for the proposed change include:
- the lack of integration of the support provided by DSA and universities
- problems with the way in which DSA support is administered to students
- concerns that the current system is not delivering "value for money in the use of public funds."
Questions in the consultation mainly focused on whether the proposed shift of responsibility should take place, and the impact it would have.
There were also questions on what aspects of the current NMH system are not working well, and what could be improved.
Why we oppose these proposed changes
We opposed the proposed changes, echoing the position of expert bodies such as Disabled Students' UK, the University Mental Health Advisors Network, and the National Association of Disability Practitioners, as well as UCL and other higher education providers.
Our view is that there are serious problems with the existing NMH system that need addressing. However, removing governmental responsibility for administering specialist NMH support would do nothing to address these problems and would likely make things substantially worse.
Shifting responsibility to universities would place great strain on already stretched student support services, risking universities being forced to consider trade-offs between meeting individual's specialist NMH costs and providing for the needs of non-DSA eligible students.
The increased administrative burden could result in longer waiting times for students and further delays in accessing support.
There are clear benefits to DSA administering NMH support, including the fact that students' don't have to disclose their disability to their university if they don't want to and that, despite extensive problems, there is evidence that students value the specialist NMH support they receive through DSA support.
There are no details in the consultation around how much funding would be made available to universities and whether it would be guaranteed to increase in line with inflation.
Without these details, the shift in responsibility could represent a cut in overall financial support to disabled students.
The current system still needs to be changed
We did, however, point to many problems with the current NMH system and suggested ways in which these could be addressed.
Government funding has been consistently cut over the past eight years and there are many financial barriers students face to receiving support, for example the need to pay an initial £200. The process is overly long, requiring onerous levels of evidence. These barriers stop many students from applying to access support they need, and mean long delays for those who do.
Student Finance England state that the average waiting time for students to access support is 14 weeks, and we know of cases where students had up to 11 different support workers over an academic year due to poor communication between external providers and DSA.
Many students are also ineligible for DSA support altogether. International students are ineligible, as are students on placements or study years abroad.
The system could be improved by measures such as increases in funding, making all students eligible for DSA support, reviewing eligibility criteria to make it less onerous, and wider institutional steps to address the barriers disabled students' face.
In producing our response, we were directed by the views of our elected student officers. We have also drawn on focus groups conducted with disabled students over the past two years, a review of data and evidence produced by expert bodies, meetings with UCL staff, and feedback expressed by disabled students who have accessed our independent Students’ Union Advice Service.
Ahmad Ismail, our 2023-2024 Equity and Inclusion Officer, and Issy Smith, our 2023-2024 Postgraduate Officer, played a particularly key role in helping us put together our response.
If you have any questions about our response, or want to discuss further, please contact su.policyandresearch@ucl.ac.uk