Funding for interpreting support for deaf and hard of hearing students

The request was partially successful.

Dear Student Loans Company Limited,

Please could you provide the following information:

How many first and second year undergraduate students, received DSA non-medical helper funding for costs relating to a Communication Support Worker or British Sign Language Interpreter, in the academic years 2016 - 2017, and 2017 - 2018?

Yours faithfully,

Frances Lewin

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FOI Requests, Student Loans Company Limited

Dear Ms Lewin

Thank you for your email dated 22/07/2018.

Your request is being considered under the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (“FOIA”).

Your request has been allocated reference 163-18.

We will respond to you under the terms of the FOIA and within 20 working
days.

Can I ask if data for Student Finance England Disabled Students' Allowance
is what you are seeking, or if you are also seeking data for other funding
bodies?

We will contact you further for clarification of your request if this is
considered necessary.  

Yours sincerely

Louise Chapman | Legal Executive
Student Loans Company
100 Bothwell Street, Glasgow G2 7JD
e: 32080  t: 0141 306 2080

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Dear FOI Requests,

Thank you for your email.

It would be useful to have data for other funding bodies for students from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland but I was expecting to have to contact them directly. If you have this information, could you share this with me, please?

Yours sincerely,

Frances Lewin

FOI Requests, Student Loans Company Limited

Dear Ms Lewin

We would be the relevant public body for the Student Finance Wales
students, however for Northern Ireland it would need to be the Education
Authority and SAAS for Scotland.

I'll progress your request for Student Finance England and Student Finance
Wales.

Yours sincerely

Louise Chapman | Legal Executive
Student Loans Company
100 Bothwell Street, Glasgow G2 7JD
e: 32080  t: 0141 306 2080

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Follow us at [2]Twitter/SLCcomms for the latest corporate news and updates

From:        Frances Lewin <[FOI #500318 email]>
To:        FOI Requests <[SLC request email]>
Date:        23/07/2018 10:31
Subject:        Re: Freedom of Information request - Funding for
interpreting support for deaf and hard of hearing students (SLC FOI ref
163-18)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear FOI Requests,

Thank you for your email.

It would be useful to have data for other funding bodies for students from
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland but I was expecting to have to
contact them directly. If you have this information, could you share this
with me, please?

Yours sincerely,

Frances Lewin

show quoted sections

Dear FOI Requests,

Thank you. That's really helpful.

I look forward to hearing from you again.

Best wishes,

Frances Lewin

SLC FOI Requests - Do Not Reply, Student Loans Company Limited

This is an automated response to let you know that your email has been
received by the Student Loans Company Limited ("SLC").

SLC's Freedom of Information Office is only able to deal with requests for
information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 ("FOIA"). If your
email relates to a request for information under the FOIA, a separate
acknowledgement will be issued with a request reference.
your email is in relation to a student finance application or account
enquiry, and you have provided sufficient details to identify your account,

your email will be passed to the relevant department. Alternatively,
please contact us using the contact details available at
https://www.slc.co.uk/contact.aspx.

If your email is not a customer enquiry then it has been passed to the
relevant department.

SLC's Freedom of Information Office is unable to advise response timescales

for other departments.

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SLC FOI Requests - Do Not Reply, Student Loans Company Limited

This is an automated response to let you know that your email has been
received by the Student Loans Company Limited ("SLC").

SLC's Freedom of Information Office is only able to deal with requests for
information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 ("FOIA"). If your
email relates to a request for information under the FOIA, a separate
acknowledgement will be issued with a request reference.
your email is in relation to a student finance application or account
enquiry, and you have provided sufficient details to identify your account,

your email will be passed to the relevant department. Alternatively,
please contact us using the contact details available at
https://www.slc.co.uk/contact.aspx.

If your email is not a customer enquiry then it has been passed to the
relevant department.

SLC's Freedom of Information Office is unable to advise response timescales

for other departments.

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FOI Requests, Student Loans Company Limited

Dear Ms Lewin

Your request is being progressed and it has been established that we will
only be able to provide data for Student Finance England within the
appropriate costs limit applicable to FOI requests.  I will provide a
fuller explanation in the detailed response.  

As your request is specific in asking for data in relation to first and
second year undergraduate students, on checking the course type and year
of some students, the following have been identified over and above the
standard 3 year degree course length:

* postgraduate certificates in education may show as a full-time
undergraduate course
* some students have studied not at degree level, e.g. HNC, Certificate
in Education
* some students have studied a foundation degree (which shows as a 2
year course), and others have studied a 4 year course with a
foundation year, with the foundation year showing as year 0 of 4.
* some students have studied on a part-time basis
* some students have studied a one year top up course
* an accelerated undergraduate degree course of 2 years in length has
also been identified.

I would propose removing any postgraduate students from the results,
including PGCE and Initial Teacher Training, however wanted to check about
the other course types and whether you wished these to be included or
excluded.

Yours sincerely

Louise Chapman | Legal Executive
Student Loans Company
100 Bothwell Street, Glasgow G2 7JD
e: 32080  t: 0141 306 2080

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Dear FOI Requests,

Thank you for your email.

My request only concerns students on an undergraduate degree course e.g. BA or BSc. Please disregard any postgraduate courses, HND or certificate courses, but do include undergraduate courses whether full or part-time. Do let me know if there is any further clarification.

Your help is very much appreciated.

Yours sincerely,

Frances Lewin

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This is an automated response to let you know that your email has been
received by the Student Loans Company Limited ("SLC").

SLC's Freedom of Information Office is only able to deal with requests for
information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 ("FOIA"). If your
email relates to a request for information under the FOIA, a separate
acknowledgement will be issued with a request reference.
your email is in relation to a student finance application or account
enquiry, and you have provided sufficient details to identify your account,

your email will be passed to the relevant department. Alternatively,
please contact us using the contact details available at
https://www.slc.co.uk/contact.aspx.

If your email is not a customer enquiry then it has been passed to the
relevant department.

SLC's Freedom of Information Office is unable to advise response timescales

for other departments.

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FOI Requests, Student Loans Company Limited

Dear Ms Lewin

I am currently in the process of finalising our response to your request
for information.

Due to the way in which our data is recorded, within the appropriate costs
limit is not possible to provide details of the number of students in
receipt of funding for Communication Support Worker or BSL interpreters.
 This is due to the fact that DSA payment data shows as the relevant
allowance type, in this case Non-Medical Help (NMH) for both full and part
time students.  The data I have been working with is based on DSA agreed
awards, with awards not necessarily resulting in payments (e.g. if the
student withdraws from their course).  A manual exercise to add the course
type and year has been required and a further manual exercise would be
required to establish payments made for this type of NMH support.  The
request is complicated by the fact that full-time undergraduate students
are not required to apply for DSA each year, students may have repeated a
year, therefore historical DSA awards would also have to be reviewed.    

So as to provide you with as much data as we can provide wihtin the
appropriate costs limit I wanted to establish if you would be open to
receiving the DSA agreed awards data for 16/17 and 17/18.

Yours sincerely

Louise Chapman | Legal Executive
Student Loans Company
100 Bothwell Street, Glasgow G2 7JD
e: 32080  t: 0141 306 2080

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FOI Requests, Student Loans Company Limited

Dear Ms Lewin

I refer to your recent email dated requesting the following information
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“FOIA”):

“How many first and second year undergraduate students, received DSA
non-medical helper funding for costs relating to a Communication Support
Worker or British Sign Language Interpreter, in the academic years 2016 -
2017, and 2017 - 2018?”

Clarification of your request had been sought to establish the scope of
your request in terms of funding bodies, and you confirmed that you were
looking for data for all UK funding bodies.  I subsequently confirmed that
the Student Loans Company Limited (“SLC”) would hold the data for students
receiving Disabled Students’ Allowance (“DSA”) funding through Student
Finance England (“SFE”) and Student Finance Wales (“SFW”).

Response

Having reviewed your request and in consultation with the appropriate
departments within SLC I have concluded that this information cannot be
released as the cost of complying with your request would exceed the
appropriate limit set out in the Freedom of Information and Data
Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.  The limit
applying to SLC is £450 or 2.5 days (calculated to be 18 hours of staff
time at £25 per hour).

The information is therefore exempt under section 12(1) of the FOIA and in
accordance with section 17(1) of the FOIA this letter constitutes a
Refusal Notice in respect of your request.

I had previously confirmed that we would only be able to provide SFE data
within the appropriate costs limit as the level of management information
available differs between the SFE and SFW DSA Teams.  Having received data
from our DSA Team, this is based on DSA agreements for Communication
Support Workers (“CSW”) and/or British Sign Language (“BSL”) Interpreters.
 This data includes students in all years and all course types.  As the
data is based on DSA agreements, these are agreements made in the relevant
academic year for CSW and/or BSL interpreter support.  Not all students
are required to submit a DSA application each year, and full-time students
will continue to receive DSA support based on their first DSA agreement
letter unless their circumstances change and changes to their DSA support
are required, therefore historical DSA agreement data would need to be
reviewed to establish if there was a student who had CSW and/or BSL
interpreter support agreed in a previous academic year (which could be
2015/16 or earlier for a student repeating a year).  To establish the
course type and year has required a manual analysis of accounts as you
have requested data in relation to undergraduate degree courses only as
some courses below degree level will show as being a full-time
undergraduate course.  

DSA payment data is recorded on a different basis, against the relevant
DSA allowance type, which in this case would be non-medical help
allowance.  The payment data does not indicate any further description,
therefore a manual exercise would have to be undertaken to establish
whether any CSW and/or BSL Interpreter costs were paid.  This manual
exercise on top of the manual exercise already undertaken to establish
course type and year would result in the time spent on your request
exceeding 18 hours of staff time.  

Within the appropriate costs limit we are able to provide details of the
number of students who had CSW and/or BSL Interpreter support agreed in
academic years 2016/17 and 2017/18.  Please refer to the table below for
this data:

Number of students with CSW and/or BSL
Interpreter support agreed
Academic year 2016/17 Academic year 2017/18
Full time undergraduate 51 38
students in their first or
second year (including year 0
of full-time course with
foundation year
Part-time undergraduate 7 3
students in their first or
second year

Please note the following in relation to the above data:
·        The data covers students who have SFE DSA funding agreed for CSW
and/or BSL Interpreter support.
·        The following course types of have been excluded – postgraduate,
HNC, HND, Certificates/Diplomas in Education, foundation degrees and 1
year top up courses.  
·        Courses which incorporate a foundation year as part of the course
have been included – these students show on our systems as being in year 0
of 4 in their first year.  
·        DSA applications and payments typically happen later in the
academic year than core student finance applications/payments, due to
students often only becoming aware of their entitlement after starting
their course and DSA applications for 2017/18 are still being received.
 Also, academic year 2017/18 is still open, and students with January or
April course start dates may yet apply for support.  The figures are
therefore subject to change.  
·        CSW and/or BSL Interpreter support being agreed does not
necessarily translate to a payment for this type of support, for example a
student may not ever attend their course in which case no payments will be
made other than for the DSA needs assessment or they may withdraw from
their course at an early stage before any CSW and/or BSL Interpreter costs
are incurred.  

Internal review process

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the
right to ask for an internal review.

Internal review requests should be submitted within two months of the date
of receipt of the response to your original request and should be
addressed to the Freedom of Information Office, Student Loans Company
Limited, 100 Bothwell Street, Glasgow, G2 7JD,   Email:
[SLC request email].  Please remember to quote the reference number
above in any future communications.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision.  The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House  
Water Lane  
Wilmslow  
Cheshire  
SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely

Louise Chapman | Legal Executive
Student Loans Company
100 Bothwell Street, Glasgow G2 7JD
e: 32080  t: 0141 306 2080

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Dear FOI Requests,

I'm sorry but the table isn't clear and I'd like to clarify the figures, please.

You said:
Number of students with CSW and/or BSL
Interpreter support agreed
Academic year 2016/17 Academic year 2017/18
Full time undergraduate 51 38
students in their first or
second year (including year 0
of full-time course with
foundation year
Part-time undergraduate 7 3
students in their first or
second year

My question: Is that 5,138 full-time undergraduate students in their first or second year? Or 51 full-time undergraduate students, of whom 38 are students in their first or second year? With 5138 on the same line, I must clarify as 5,138 is far higher than would be anticipated. And 73 part-time undergraduate students in their first or second year?

Yours sincerely,

Frances Lewin

SLC FOI Requests - Do Not Reply, Student Loans Company Limited

This is an automated response to let you know that your email has been
received by the Student Loans Company Limited ("SLC").

SLC's Freedom of Information Office is only able to deal with requests for
information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 ("FOIA"). If your
email relates to a request for information under the FOIA, a separate
acknowledgement will be issued with a request reference.
your email is in relation to a student finance application or account
enquiry, and you have provided sufficient details to identify your account,

your email will be passed to the relevant department. Alternatively,
please contact us using the contact details available at
https://www.slc.co.uk/contact.aspx.

If your email is not a customer enquiry then it has been passed to the
relevant department.

SLC's Freedom of Information Office is unable to advise response timescales

for other departments.

show quoted sections

Dear Student Loans Company Limited,

In reference to my clarification, I think you may have been presenting the figures for 2 terms together. I'm sorry but what you refer to as a table is not showing as such in the email response.

You said:
Number of students with CSW and/or BSL
Interpreter support agreed
Academic year 2016/17 Academic year 2017/18
Full time undergraduate 51 38
students in their first or
second year (including year 0
of full-time course with
foundation year
Part-time undergraduate 7 3
students in their first or
second year

So were there 51 full-time students in 2016/17 and 38 in 2017/18? And 7 part-time students in 2016/17 and 3 in 2017/18?

Yours faithfully,

Frances Lewin

SLC FOI Requests - Do Not Reply, Student Loans Company Limited

This is an automated response to let you know that your email has been
received by the Student Loans Company Limited ("SLC").

SLC's Freedom of Information Office is only able to deal with requests for
information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 ("FOIA"). If your
email relates to a request for information under the FOIA, a separate
acknowledgement will be issued with a request reference.
your email is in relation to a student finance application or account
enquiry, and you have provided sufficient details to identify your account,

your email will be passed to the relevant department. Alternatively,
please contact us using the contact details available at
https://www.slc.co.uk/contact.aspx.

If your email is not a customer enquiry then it has been passed to the
relevant department.

SLC's Freedom of Information Office is unable to advise response timescales

for other departments.

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FOI Requests, Student Loans Company Limited

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Lewin

Please excuse the delay in responding to your email.

The table I had sent is showing as a table this end, however I have added
the data in to an Excel spreadsheet, which is attached.

I trust this clarifies the figures.

Regards

Louise Chapman | Legal Executive
Student Loans Company
100 Bothwell Street, Glasgow G2 7JD
e: 32080  t: 0141 306 2080

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Dear FOI Requests,

I wonder if you might reconsider the task of calculating the total number of students (new applications and those already with agreed support), please?

I am a PhD Research Student at UCL Institute of Education and my study is looking at interpreting support for Deaf university students and believe this research would be beneficial and have an impact for you and others providing the support to this group of students.

I would like to know how many students have agreed funding for interpreting support (new and previous applicants) in the years 2016/17 and 2017/18 who are in their 1st or 2nd year of an undergraduate degree, with the figures for England (SfE) and Wales (SfW) presented separately.

In order to have a picture of the landscape of the interpreting support being provided it is essential that we have these figures, and here your support would be greatly appreciated.

Best wishes,

Frances Lewin
PhD Research Student
UCL Institute of Education
Psychology & Human Development

SLC FOI Requests - Do Not Reply, Student Loans Company Limited

This is an automated response to let you know that your email has been
received by the Student Loans Company Limited ("SLC").

SLC's Freedom of Information Office is only able to deal with requests for
information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 ("FOIA"). If your
email relates to a request for information under the FOIA, a separate
acknowledgement will be issued with a request reference.

If your email is in relation to a student finance application or account
enquiry, and you have provided sufficient details to identify your account,

your email will be passed to the relevant department. Alternatively,
please contact us using the contact details available at
https://www.slc.co.uk/contact.aspx.

If your email is not a customer enquiry then it has been passed to the
relevant department.

SLC's Freedom of Information Office is unable to advise response timescales

for other departments.

show quoted sections

FOI Requests, Student Loans Company Limited

Dear Ms Lewin

I refer to your email of 07/03/2019.  Please excuse the delay in
responding.  We have not registered your email as a new request, rather a
follow-up email asking us to reconsider our previous response.

For the reasons set out previously, we are not in a position to reconsider
your request due to the level of manual analysis required and have
provided as much data as we can within the provisions of the FOI Act.

Yours sincerely

Louise Chapman | Senior Legal Executive
Student Loans Company
100 Bothwell Street, Glasgow G2 7JD
e: 32080  t: 0141 306 2080
[1]www.slc.co.uk
Follow us at [2]Twitter/SLCcomms for the latest corporate news and updates

From:        Frances Lewin <[FOI #500318 email]>
To:        FOI Requests <[SLC request email]>
Date:        07/03/2019 10:30
Subject:        Re: Freedom of Information request - Funding for
interpreting support for deaf and hard of hearing students (SLC ref
163-18)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear FOI Requests,

I wonder if you might reconsider the task of calculating the total number
of students (new applications and those already with agreed support),
please?

I am a PhD Research Student at UCL Institute of Education and my study is
looking at interpreting support for Deaf university students and believe
this research would be beneficial and have an impact for you and others
providing the support to this group of students.

I would like to know how many students have agreed funding for
interpreting support (new and previous applicants) in the years 2016/17
and 2017/18 who are in their 1st or 2nd year of an undergraduate degree,
with the figures for England (SfE) and Wales (SfW) presented separately.

In order to have a picture of the landscape of the interpreting support
being provided it is essential that we have these figures, and here your
support would be greatly appreciated.

Best wishes,

Frances Lewin
PhD Research Student
UCL Institute of Education
Psychology & Human Development

show quoted sections