Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what public consultation has taken place with whom in preparation for the introduction of the two-quote system for university specialist mental health mentoring provision.

Joseph Johnson

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have clear responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 to support students, including those with mental health conditions. It is for the HEI to determine what welfare and counselling services they need to provide to their students.

In addition, Disabled Students Allowances (DSAs) are available to meet the additional costs of study-related support needs, where the needs of the student cannot be met by the institution by way of a reasonable adjustment.

A new quality assurance framework is being developed for support that is funded by DSAs, so as to provide assurance on both quality and financial matters. The quality assurance framework will be in place in 2016. All support workers will be required to meet quality standards in order to be funded through DSAs. Discussions with stakeholders regarding new mechanisms for the selection of non-medical help support providers are already underway.