Disabled Students Allowances (DSA) are awarded to students when undertaking a course of higher education to help pay the extra costs they may incur because of a disability (including a long-term health condition, mental health condition or specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia).
SLC wishes to develop a framework to deliver Assistive Technology (AT) Equipment and Training for Student Finance England (SFE) and Student Finance Wales (SFW) to support students that are in receipt of DSA grants.
The requirements will include the delivery of hardware, software, training and ergonomic equipment and furniture directly to the student.
SLC wishes to develop a framework to deliver Assistive Technology Equipment and Training for Student Finance England (SFE) and Student Finance Wales (SFW), to be paid from Disabled Students Allowances (DSAs). DSA are awarded to students when undertaking a course of higher education to help pay the extra costs they may incur because of a disability (including a long-term health condition, mental health condition or specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia). The allowances can cover the cost to computers, software, and training,in addition to items of specialist equipment, and general expenses. Suppliers will be expected to provide a range of other equipment such as computer peripherals (printers and scanners), voice recorders, and other more specialist items such as braille readers as well as training on specialist software.
SLC is looking to deliver an improved service to students through a one-stop shop approach. To this end SLC is looking for a minimum of 3 suppliers to deliver all Assistive Technology Equipment and Training through a framework agreement. There will be a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 5 (at SLC's discretion) providers on the framework and work will be awarded using a rotational method whereby for each order SLC will utilise the next supplier on the list. Suppliers will be subject to quarterly performance monitoring based on agreed key performance indicators which will be agreed with the successful bidders. Examples of measures might be delivery, service quality, response times and turnaround times.