Specialist Learner Assessments

The Multi Disciplinary Specialist Learner Assessments project led by Treloar College, Hampshire is an excellent example of how Independent Specialist Providers (ISPs) in the south east region have supported colleagues in mainstream provision to widen access to learners with high support needs. Westgate College, Kent and the National Centre for Young People with Epilepsy, Surrey, have helped this to become a region wide offer. Assessments are undertaken by a team of experts from an ISP, including speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, sensory impairment advisers, an educational psychologist, an IT access specialist, rehabilitation engineers, physiotherapists and an examination specialist.

The assessments offer practical advice from specialists familiar with a teaching environment and are conducted at the mainstream college site. This enables staff to be involved and consulted in reviewing the student’s needs and also provides an opportunity for expertise to be disseminated.

Working with Action for Inclusion, Treloar College has developed a mobile technology unit.  This is a fully equipped vehicle which can be taken to provider sites and greatly enhances the assessment process and supports colleagues in mainstream colleges in understanding the appropriate technology to support their learners.

The assessments help mainstream colleges to put in place appropriate and cost-effective support and resources for learners with more complex physical, sensory and communication needs. By recommending the kind of equipment that can enable students to participate in as much independent learning as possible, assessors have sometimes suggested a lower level of support than the learner may have had in the past; this in turn helps students to gain in confidence and self-esteem.

The Assessment Service and the provision of therapy services by an Independent Specialist Provider can be sustained through the use of additional learning support funding.