The Wessex Needs Assessment Centre (WNAC)聽located in Student Services聽will close its doors at the end of this month after聽more than 20 years聽of supporting students聽applying for the government funded Disabled Student Allowance (DSA) scheme. WNAC and its partner organisations were聽pioneering in the early days of聽disability support, building strong聽local聽partnerships to bring life-changing assistive technology and one to one support to disabled students.
Last year聽the聽Student Loans聽Company聽announced their intention to tender聽nationally聽for needs assessments聽for Student Finance England聽funded DSA students. The tender process presented聽a number of聽significant聽challenges,聽which would聽have聽diverted聽the attention of聽Student Services聽teams to non-student facing聽activity, with diminishing financial returns.
Approximately 20% of WNAC鈥檚 clients are from the University of Southampton, with the remainder from WNAC鈥檚 outreach partners at the University of Winchester, Southampton Solent University and University of the Arts聽Bournemouth. Students will be able to access needs assessments as part of their DSA application through a national network of centres in their home area, or near the University; currently there are three independent centres in Southampton alone, and one in Winchester.
We are enormously grateful to the staff and assessor teams who have worked聽so diligently聽to support students over the years. Whilst聽the University continues to build on the range of support and reasonable adjustments available to students upon arrival, the DSA remains a key source of targeted support聽and the support and advice provided by needs assessors is often a key part of that.
Details of local needs assessment centres and where students should go if they have a query relating to a needs assessment carried out with WNAC, can be found on the assessment centre webpage.
