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, the Frontline programme who have medical evidence of a disability or long-term condition, may be eligible to apply for Disabled Students Allowance (DSA) from your funding body. 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.

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 Finance England (SFE)

You can find the DSA application forms and guidance notes for SFE via Disabled Students Allowance (DSA) information page. You will need to complete the form for the academic year in which you started, e.g. if you started the course in July 2023, you would complete the 2022/2023 application form; if you started the course in July 2024, you would complete the 2023/2024 application form.

Student Finance Northern Ireland (SF ni)

You can find the DSA application forms and guidance notes for SF ni via the Disabled Students Allowance (DSA). If you are applying for DSA via SAAS then we would recommend that you speak to a Disability Advisor for more details about the application process. Please email disability@lancaster.ac.uk if you have any queries.

Student Finance Wales (SFW)

You can find the DSA application forms and guidance notes for SFW via Disabled Students Allowance (DSA). You will need to complete the form for the academic year in which you started, e.g. if you started the course in July 2023, you would complete the 2022/2023 application form; if you started the course in July 2024, you would complete the 2023/2024 application form.

Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS)

You can find the DSA application forms and guidance notes for SAAS via the SAAS Disabled Students Allowance (DSA) information page. Please contact SAAS if you are unsure of whether you are eligible to apply for DSA. If you are applying for DSA via SAAS then we would recommend that you speak to a Disability Advisor for more details about the application process. Please email disability@lancaster.ac.uk if you have any queries.

Participants on year two onwards of the Frontline 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.

If you need support in managing your finances or debt, then you can access support via the Student Assistance Programme (SAP)/Employee Assistance Programme (EAP). If you have questions about additional financial support, such as the Lancaster Opportunity and Access Fund, then please contact the Lancaster University Student Funding team.

Participants on the Frontline programme have access to mental health support through the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)/Student Assistance Programme (SAP) and access to SilverCloud, a cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) app. You can self-refer to use the EAP/SAP and the SilverCloud app and you can find more information on your Moodle pages.

EAP/SAP

As availability to the EAP/SAP service is unique to Frontline participants (Lancaster University students do not normally receive access to EAP), it is important that when using the service you avoid the language of 'participant' and 'student', as this has been known to cause confusion. When contacting the EAP service therefore, please use the identifying details of: Lancaster University, Frontline

If you experience any issues accessing the service, or you are told incorrectly that you do not have access to the service by an EAP/SAP member of staff, please let admissions.support@thefrontline.org.uk know so that they are able to resolve this for you.

Please remember that because EAP/SAP is an external service, your use of it is unsupported by Frontline or Lancaster University; this means that EAP/SAP do not share information and unless you choose to inform Frontline and/or Lancaster University, we will have no knowledge of any health and wellbeing issues you may have.

Participants can also access the following support service through the Employee/Student Assistance Programme (EAP/SAP):

• An online EAP/SAP/health and wellbeing portal designed to offer self-help and guided support.
• Debt management support and a legal and information team providing Citizens Advice Bureau type information.
• Telephonic career coaching. You can access one 50-minute session per annum.

SilverCloud

Silvercloud is a cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) app available to all participants with a Lancaster University email address. It be accessed anytime, from anywhere and has four different programmes available, each based on cognitive behavioural techniques: space from stress, space from anxiety, space from depression and space from body image. Please note, the app is an unsupported, non-emergency intervention, and your details and posts will not be shared with a mental health professional, Lancaster University or Frontline. You can find details of how to access urgent non-emergency and emergency NHS support via the NHS Every Mind Matters webpages.

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 on the Frontline programme 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.

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.

AppsAnywhere lets you use a wide range of free and licensed software applications from home or campus (depending on the software) 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. Software available includes:

Mindjet Mindmanager

You can access an online course with more information on how to use the software online course called ‘Mindmapping with Mindjet’

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.

Our usual opening hours are 9am-5pm, Monday to Friday (except Bank Holidays and University closure days.)

For general enquiries, Ask us a Question using our online form or ASK enquiries or email us.

Ask us a Question using our online form or via ASK enquiries

Phone: 01524 592111 (with answerphone)

Email: disability@lancaster.ac.uk

Postal address: Disability and Inclusive Practice Service, Student & Education Services, University House, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YW