When you register with the Disability and Inclusive Practice Service, we will ask you to provide appropriate evidence of your condition. We will use your evidence along with any further information we have gathered from you to produce an Inclusive Learning and Support Plan (ILSP).

The ILSP will highlight the characteristics of your condition, how these may impact your academic studies and will make recommendations about reasonable adjustments that your Local Authority placement, Frontline, and their exams team should put in place to support your studies.

We will ask you to view and approve your ILSP on your student portal before we share it with the relevant Lancaster University staff, the Local Authority you are working with and Frontline. Your ILSP, which will be available to view on your portal, is a living document and can be amended.

We recommend that all disabled participants have an ILSP, and you can ask us to review or update your ILSP if your circumstances change or your adjustments are not enabling you to study effectively. It is your responsibility to inform the Lancaster University Disability Service if an update or review of an ILSP is required.

Reasonable adjustments and competence and professional standards

A competence standard is a particular level of competence or ability that you must demonstrate to be accepted on to, progress within and successfully complete a course or programme of study. Universities need competence standards to determine whether you have demonstrated the requirements to be awarded a qualification.

As a social work trainee and a (newly) qualified social worker, you must also demonstrate:

• Understanding of the professional standards set by the regulatory body, Social Work England, and uphold them in your practice;
• Knowledge, skills and understanding of the capability statements outlined in the Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF), as set by the British Association of Social Workers (BASW);
• Knowledge and skills for child and family social work, as set by the Department for Education.

Although competence and professional standards must be maintained, we can explore adjustments to the ways disabled participants demonstrate competence and professional standards.

You can contact your Practice Tutor to ask about any core competence or professional standards that you need to demonstrate on your course. Please talk to the Disability and Inclusive Practice Service if you have any concerns or you think that you will need any adjustments to competence or professional standards.

Once you have declared your disability and have provided us with evidence, this will be reviewed to inform the creation of your ILSP. In reviewing the information you have provided, we may invite you to undertake a Support Review (SR). You will be invited to have an SR if we think that further information would be helpful in determining what adjustments and support you need for your studies. The purpose of an SR is to have a more in-depth discussion about your specific requirements to determine the adjustments needed to support you with your studies.

From the SR we may make recommendations about support, which could help you with your studies.

Your SR will be a standalone assessment if you are not eligible for Disabled Students' Allowance, for example, if you are an international student. The SR is also separate from Disabled Students' Allowance (DSA), which only considers specific types of support which are eligible for DSA funding.

Information from your SR and (if relevant) your DSA assessment will be used to inform your ILSP which is your definitive record of the support and adjustments you will receive at Lancaster. You can access your ILSP via the student portal.

Participants on, or due to start, Approach Social Work have medical evidence of a disability or long-term condition, may be eligible to apply for Disabled Students Allowance (DSA) from your funding body in Year 1 and 3 of your studies. DSA is not means tested and does not need to be repaid. The allowance is dependent on your needs and will be paid directly to providers. DSA can pay for things like mentoring support, assistive technology, and additional study costs incurred because of your disability.

You will need to complete an application and send them evidence of your condition. Once the evidence has been checked, and your eligibility approved, you will need to book an appointment for a Study Needs Assessment at an Assessment Centre. Your funding body will tell you how to do this.

It is the participant’s responsibility to complete, send and monitor the progress of their DSA application. As a Postgraduate student you will need to apply in both Year 1 and Year 3.

DSA Eligibility and Residency

Although Frontline participants study and work in England for the duration of the course, the process for applying for Disabled Students' Allowances (DSA) differs between the four nations of the United Kingdom. You will need to apply to the UK region in which you have lived for 3 years or more prior to the start of the course. For example, if prior to the course you lived in Wales for 3 years or more, you would apply for DSA through Student Finance Wales (SFW).

Student Assistance Programme (SAP)

While registered as a student of Lancaster University during year 1 and year 3 of Approach Social Work, you will have access to mental health and wellbeing support via the Student Assistance Programme (SAP).

Where you have initial or emerging concerns about your wellbeing or mental health, participants are encouraged to seek advice from SAP, as well as directly from NHS services.

The SAP wellbeing and mental health advice line is run for Lancaster University in partnership with Health Assured. The counsellors on the helpline can provide you with help and advice for a range of issues including:

• Mental health
• Stress and anxiety
• Bereavement
• Relationship advice
• Family issues
• Tenancy and housing concerns
• Alcohol and drug issues.

We know it can be difficult to take those first steps to seek support, the qualified and experienced staff are on hand to give you that help when you feel ready to access it. The mental health and wellbeing line is available 24/7, 365 days, so help is always available at a time that suits you.

Contact details are available in your Programme Handbook.

SilverCloud

Participants also have access to an online self-help programme, SilverCloud which is based on cognitive behavioural therapy techniques. There are different programmes available covering issues such as stress, anxiety, depression, resilience, mindfulness, money worries, alcohol, sleep and body image. To access SilverCloud, please register on their website with your Lancaster University email address and follow SilverCloud’s instructions to create an account and get started

A full educational psychologist assessment will be required in order for you to get any study support at university as a result of an SpLD. It will also be required for any application for Disabled Students Allowance (DSA). If you have an existing report or other documentation relating to your SpLD but are unsure of whether it is suitable then please contact the Disability and Inclusive Practice Service and we will review your evidence for suitability.

Participants wishing to access an Educational Psychologist appointment for an assessment in relation to a Specific Learning Difficulties should email disability@lancaster.ac.uk. Your information will then be shared with Frontline who will contact you with further details.

Participants on year two onwards of the Approach Social Work programme, and in their Assessed Year in Employment (ASYE) within a Local Authority (LA) and who have medical evidence of a disability or long-term condition, may be eligible to apply for Access to Work.

Your employer (the Local Authority) must make certain changes (known as ‘reasonable adjustments’) to make sure you are not substantially disadvantaged when doing your job. These could include changes to your working arrangements or providing equipment to help you do your job. You should talk to your employer about reasonable adjustments before you apply for Access to Work.

If the help you need at work is not covered by your employer (the Local Authority) making reasonable adjustments, you may be able to get help from Access to Work. You will be offered support based on your needs, which may include a grant to help cover the costs of practical support in the workplace. You might not get a grant if you already get certain benefits.

The Learning Development team at Lancaster University supports students to learn new skills and with aspects of their academic work. Harriet is the Learning Developer working specifically with Frontline participants.

Learning development helps all learners to reach their potential, regardless of current or previous attainment level. Harriet will be holding one-to-one tutorials where she will work with you to evaluate your academic work. Together you can discuss strategies for developing skills in writing, criticality, and analysis. Tutorials can take place remotely via Microsoft Teams, and this includes some evening hours.

If you would like to know more or to book a session with Harriet then please email learningdevelopmentfl@lancaster.ac.uk.

Frontline participants can access Lancaster’s library online.

Access is also available directly from the student portal when logged in.

The Library provides a wide range of resources to support your studies including ebooks, ejournals, databases and streaming video collections. A good place to start exploring the materials available is the subject guide for Social Work with its focused information and content. Use the discovery tool OneSearch to find and access the Library's online collections.

If you need help with finding and using Library resources, get in touch with your Faculty Librarians by email at facultylibrarians@lancaster.ac.uk or book an online appointment. You can also use the Library chat service for general enquiries and consult the guide for distance learners for information about further tailored support.

All Lancaster University students have access to AppsAnywhere.

AppsAnywhere lets you use a wide range of free and licensed software applications from home or campus and without the need for admin rights to your computer. If you want to access software using AppsAnywhere then you will need to be using a Windows device with Cloudpaging Player installed. This is already installed on all University managed computers and laptops, and in all teaching spaces. If you are using a personal device, you will need to manually install Cloudpaging Player.

Macs and other devices can use AppsAnywhere via the MyLab or MyDesktop services.

You may find the following software particularly useful:

• Mindjet Mindmanager 2022
  
  • Mind mapping software
    • Helpful in planning essays
    • Good for when organising thoughts
    • Can export as headings to a word document
• TextHelp Read and Write Gold (University PCs Only)
  • Speech to text
  • Text to speech
  • Screen-tinting/masking
  • Reading ruler
  • Grammar and spelling correction

You may also find it helpful to take a look at the Lancaster University webpage on in-built device access tools.

This contains information on access tools within Windows and Mac operating systems, as well as on your phone.