Closure opens gap for students

As the class of 2011 traipses out of the playground and slowly into adulthood Ruth Patrick laments the passing of an organisation which gave valuable help and support to disabled students

Continuing in further and higher education is a great way to learn new skills, become more “employable”, whilst also having a fantastic time meeting new friends and lovers and enjoying recently-won freedoms.

The transition from school into higher or further education can be even more challenging for disabled people who have to navigate new, complex forms of funding and form relationships with equality units and support staff. Sadly, from April 2011, one organisation that played a particularly critical role in helping disabled students successfully enter and sustain educational careers post-school will no longer be able to provide such support.

Skill: the National Bureau for Students with Disabilities, the only pan-disability charity providing help and advice to disabled students, has gone into liquidation following funding issues. Further details are unavailable, but it is likely that the combination of a government set on cutting the much-overhyped deficit and a broader “age of austerity measures” have taken their toll.

For more than 40 years, Skill offered much needed help and advice to disabled students via its helpline, information booklets and events. Skill also performed a critical policy role in lobbying government for more progressive and enabling support to ensure that disabled people have equal access to the very best higher and further education.  The role played by Skill remains essential given enduring issues with the system of financial support for disabled students (the Disabled Student’s Allowance) as well as ongoing battles in persuading universities and apprenticeship providers to become truly “accessible” for all. Indeed, disabled people remain under-represented in both higher and further education with latest figures showing that while 41% of non-disabled people have experienced higher education by the age of 19, the comparable figure for disabled people is 28%.

In a creative and confident response to Skill’s closure nationally, the Scottish wing of the charity has announced that it is seeking to continue its important work, either by setting up as a new organisation or by joining up with an existing charity. The former employees of Skill are lobbying the Holyrood government and working hard to try and create a future where disabled people continue to receive the specialist help they need to prosper in higher and further education. The response of the Skill Scotland team shows grim determination to carry on and push forward, despite the many hurdles placed in their path. The team are united in seeking to create a better future for their fellow citizens by ensuring that Skill Scotland’s role is not lost. Could this be the real “big society” in action? It’s just a shame that to realise David Cameron’s vision it is first necessary to cut, cut, cut – causing untold damage – particularly to those many services which will not be rescued by a second-chance-brigade.

• For more information about the Scottish campaign and to sign the petition for the continuity of Skill: Scotland in some form see: supportdisabledstudentsinscotland.yolasite.com