Help for learners with disabilities
The College aims to provide a supportive environment and equality of opportunity for learners with
disabilities and/or learning difficulties. If you have a disability or special need and feel that you may
need help with your application, or with your course, assistance is available. Should you need advice about
support, please contact a member of Learner Services on 0845 52 12345. Further information is available in
our Disability Guide, this is available in a variety of
formats on request and contains the College Disability Statement.
Learning Support
Learning Support focuses on making the curriculum and College life accessible to learners with particular
needs. Programmes of support are designed to suit your individual needs and nothing is too small or
unimportant, if it is causing you concern.
If you think you need support, we will need you to take a brief assessment. Following the assessment,
support we can offer may include:
- Note takers / scribes
- Assistance with organisation and motivation
- Equipment loans
- Support to access the full range of College services and facilities
- Special Exam Considerations
- Reviews with internal/external agencies.
Sensory Impairment Support / Communicator support
Our Sensory Impairment Officers are available to offer support and advice to Visually or Hearing
Impaired learners.
The support available may include:
- Note taking and modification of resources.
- Mobility and orientation training, note taking, modification of resources and Specialist Teacher
of the Visually Impaired (TOVI) for those with a visual impairment.
- Access to specialist technology and resources including Braille, large-print format, DVD/Disk, CCTV,
Mountbatten Brailler (electronic), Perkins Brailler (manual), JAWS (text to voice software), laptops,
voice-activated tape recorders for use in lessons, Zoom Text (magnifier), Dragon Naturally Speaking (speech
recognition software).
You can contact our Sensory Impairment staff by telephone (01702 220620), Minicom (01702 220642),
Fax (01702 432320) and/or email guidance@southend.ac.uk. If you
would prefer to visit us in person, we also have support staff trained in British Sign Language, Sign Supported
English lipspeaking and Cued Speech.
Personal Care
The College is well placed to meet the needs of learners with complex personal care needs (toileting, feeding etc.). We have well equipped and accessible buildings with accessible toilets on each floor, and a toilet with a ceiling mounted hoist (portable hoist at Basildon Campus), closo-mat toilet and couch at each of our sites.
Our staff are fully trained to deliver personal care in a caring and sensitive way, where learner dignity is at the heart of our service
Learning Support
Many people applying to study at the College have particular special needs (for example, ADHD, Asperger’s
Syndrome or mental health difficulties). We want all our learners to be successful and realise that some
learners require additional support to settle into College and achieve their full potential. Our Additional
Tutorial Support Team has been created to offer a flexible service which aims to meet your needs.
Advisers can:
- Assist with assessing and reviewing your support needs
- Help support learners with disabilities/difficulties
- Provide mentoring and advocacy
- Make referrals to external agencies
- Give advice regarding bullying and harassment
- Negotiate special exam arrangements (although you need to request these)
- Arrange alternative education placements and support
Looked After Children and Young Carers
The aim of the College is to make your time here a pleasurable, successful experience and to help you
overcome any problems that may occur along the way. We understand that if you are a Looked After Child
or a Young Carer, you may require additional support from time to time. We know that sometimes life can
be difficult, complicated and frustrating, and that you may face many obstacles and challenges as a result
of your circumstances.
Learner Services can work closely with you if you are in the care system or are a young carer and can:
- Meet you before you enrol and start communication between outside agencies to ensure you are provided
with the best support possible as soon as you start your course.
- Assess and review your support needs
- Provide open access or set weekly arrangement of additional tutorial sessions tailored to meet
your individual needs.
- Liaise with your personal tutor to ensure you are able to complete your course successfully and
provide advocacy where necessary.
- Liaise closely with outside agencies such as Leaving Care team, foster carers, Connexions,
supported housing officers, key workers and health professionals.
- Attend Looked After Children reviews and provide positive action
- Complete Personal Education Plans with you, your social worker, personal tutor and carer.
Counselling
We offer a confidential counselling service for learners to talk through any issues that are concerning you.
Our trained counsellor also works with specialist agencies such as CRUSE and Relate, and where appropriate will
be able to refer you to other organisations that can more fully meet your needs.