Wellbeing Service>Assessment Centre>About needs assessments

About needs assessments

What happens during the assessment?

Your assessment is a chance to discuss your disability and how it impacts on your studies. The assessor will ask you about your educational experiences, qualifications and the course you intend to study. This may be something to think about before your assessment, such as how effective your previous strategies were, any equipment/software you found helpful, etc. During the assessment you will be able to discuss and try out a range of IT equipment and software, as well as support strategies including specialist one to one support, note taking and IT training.

How long will the assessment take?

The assessment could last up to 2 hours. You will not have to do any tests during the assessment.

What happens after my assessment?

The assessor will prepare the report outlining their recommendations based on the information discussed and the documents you provided. You will receive a draft copy of the report within 10 working days of your assessment. You will then have 5 working days to approve the report or request that amendments are made. Amendments will be made within 1 working day or as soon as is practically possible, depending on the nature of the amendment. We will keep you fully informed of the timescales required.

Your report will then be sent to your funding body for authorisation. Your funding body will write to you regarding the purchasing of any equipment/support. If you do not hear from your funding body after 4 weeks please contact them to check the progress of the report. 

If you do not want to recieve a draft of your report, it will be sent directly to your funding body. You will also recieve a copy of this. If at this point you would like amendments made to your report, please contact the centre. 

What if I disagree with the recommendations?

If you are dissatisfied with any aspect of your assessment please contact your assessor in the first instance:

Emailssta@cardiffmet.ac.uk
Phone: 02920 205547

You can also call into the Centre within Student Services. 

We also comply with the institutional complaints procedure.

How will payments be made?

Your funding body will write​ to you to tell you how to order your equipment, some funding bodies will order it for you, others will tell you which supplier to order from.  

General allowance items will be refunded from your funding body on submission of receipts along with a 'reimbursement claims' form. The needs assessment fee is inclusive from the duration of your studies and paid for from your DSA.

​Can I keep my equipment when my course ends?

Any equipment purchased through the DSA is your property and will remain yours when you have completed your course.​

Data Retention and Records Management Procedure

Download the proceedure - English

Download the proceedure - Welsh

This covers:

  • data we gather

  • how we retain data

  • how data is stored

  • how long data is retained for

  • how data is disposed of.