Disabled Students' Allowances (DSA) Support Agreement

Specialist Mentor/ Assistive Technology Trainer/ Specialist Study Skills Support Agreement

The Wellbeing Services seeks to provide a high quality support service.

As a student receiving Specialist Mentor/ Assistive Technology Trainer/ Specialist Study Skills support through the DSA (Disabled Students’ Allowances) you can expect:

• Delivery of support and advice from DfE registered NMH supplier.
• Support that will focus on enabling you to manage your disability in relation to your studies and University experiences.
• Liaison with your college and other support services within and outside the University, if needed and within agreed confidentiality boundaries.
• To be contacted by Wellbeing and AccessAbility Services if we need to cancel or amend an appointment.
• Regular reviews of your specialist support in line with your DSA Study Aid and Strategy Report.
• The opportunity to provide feedback.

What the Wellbeing Services Specialist Support Team can expect from you:

• To attend DSA funded appointments that you have arranged with us.
• To sign the timesheet at the start of each session.
• To comply with the University’s Health and Safety Policy.
• To give as much notice as possible if a session needs to be cancelled. A session cancelled with less than 24 hours’ notice (excluding weekends, see details below) will be treated as a missed session, as per the missed session procedure. To cancel an appointment, please contact the Mental Health Team on 01392 724381 or AccessAbility on 01392 723880.
• To take responsibility for adhering to the missed session procedure.
• To ensure your DSA application is renewed each academic year with your funding body.

At certain times of the year we may not be able to offer you support as soon as you request it. At these times we will advise you of an alternative local DSA-QAG registered support provider.

Missed session procedure:

A session is classed as a DNA (did not attend) or missed session, if it is cancelled with less than 24 hours’ notice (excluding weekends). A cancelled session is a session cancelled with more than 24 hours’ notice. Please note that 24 hours’ notice excludes weekends. If you have an appointment on Monday morning, you will need to notify us by the Friday before at the latest 4pm for it to be classed as a cancellation.

Specialist Study Skills and Assistive Technology Training:

If you DNA an appointment, we will wait to hear from you before booking any further appointments. Following two DNAs your support will be terminated for that term. You can request to start again at the beginning/during the next term.

Specialist Mentoring:

After one missed session you will be telephoned by the mentor, or delegated other, to find out the reason for non-attendance and to confirm the next appointment. If we cannot speak to you, we will send an E-mail asking you to confirm that you wish to have another appointment. If we don’t hear from you within the time given, we will assume that you don’t want another appointment and your sessions will end. If you miss two sessions per term, we will contact you by telephone or email as above. If we don’t hear from you by the date and time given, we will assume you don’t want sessions at the moment. If you have missed more than two sessions and have not contacted us in the time requested, but would like support you will need to speak with an advisor by contacting Wellbeing@exeter.ac.uk and if agreed, you will be allocated further mentoring sessions that term. Please note this may not be with your current mentor.

The University of Exeter has a Complaints Procedure that is available to read online.