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Guide opens doors
An innovative new guidance kit has been launched that will help disabled social work and teaching students to achieve their full potential.
The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) and the GTC Scotland have combined forces to produce the kit, which aims to help lecturers, tutors and others involved with students, to provide vital learning support.
The 'Learning support for disabled social work and teaching students: a guide' was developed in response to the then Disability Rights Commission recommendation in its Maintaining Standards: Promoting Equality report.
The report asked that all regulatory bodies provide guidance on reasonable adjustments and consider what other guidance is required to encourage others, such as universities, to adopt an enabling approach to disabled people.
GTC Scotland Chief Executive, Anthony Finn said: "All student teachers are expected to reach the Standard for Full Registration before they gain the right to teach in Scotland. However, we wish to ensure a level playing field that helps all teachers to reach their full potential. Consequently, it is important that teachers with disabilities have the same access to learning as other teachers.
"We work closely with the SSSC in a number of areas, but we are particularly pleased to have worked with them to provide this useful and robust guidance that will help to ensure that our teaching workforce is as diverse as possible, giving our young people a rich and varied learning experience."
Jess Alexander, SSSC Education and Workforce Development Advisor and co-author explained: "The guide is based around six scenarios that highlight some of the common issues requiring consideration when providing learning support.
"Each scenario is followed by a range of issues or questions that may be raised by the disabled student and those involved in supporting them. Our intention is to update the guide regularly with new scenarios, advice, guidance and references. We'd really like more real-life examples and would love to hear of more examples or experiences people would like to share."
The six scenarios are:
Scenario one: Admission to university for someone with epilepsy
Scenario two: Dyslexia
Scenario three: Mental health and disclosure
Scenario four: Sight impairment and Practice learning, including confidentiality and health and safety issues
Scenario five: Autism and practice learning
Scenario six: Mobility and accessibility
Anna Fowlie, SSSC Chief Executive, said: "Students affected by a disability are entitled to receive the right support when learning, and it's important that each person is treated uniquely. The guide reflects real situations and has been developed with the involvement of many different people. It is a true reflection of commitment made from the SSSC and GTC Scotland in supporting our future workforce in Scotland."
The guide aims to provide learning support guidance to disabled social work and teaching students, and others involved in their studies. Rather than duplicating the advice already provided, this guide will point the reader to specific references that may provide more information about the impairment or issues being researched.
In specific cases, university staff and others involved in discussing support arrangements with a student should seek further advice from specialist services.
Below you will find a copy of the guide along with two case studies: