NMH feedback analysis and report
The University of Bolton have over a number of years developed links with several external providers of NMH (Non Medical Helper) support and individuals providing NMH support for the Universities Disabled students. As part of the Disability Services overall review of its service, they sent a questionnaire to 100 students identified as using a range of different NMH services. One of the questions students were asked was to rate on a scale of 1-10 how they rated the NMH service they received. Of these as you will see below 79.2 % rated the service 8 and above and only 5.6 % of the respondents rated the level of service they received between 1-3.
There was however expanded feedback later in the free text fields of the questionnaire which included specific examples of negative feedback, such as support workers arriving late, communication issues, workers not taking account of the level of study eg difference between UG and PG. and therefore the student felt they were being patronised, which the Service felt it needed to investigate. There were however some areas of negative feedback for example support workers not having a subject knowledge in order to provide extra subject specific support which due to strict guidelines provided by BIS (The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills) this type of support cannot be provided by NMH support and therefore could not be considered as part of the investigation.
The Disability Service then invited all current service providers of NMH support (not individuals) along with some additional local providers to attend a presentation where they were invited to demonstrate their compliance with national charter for NMH providers.
The Disability Service Manager was instrumental in developing this charter and was actively involved in the widespread consultation over a two year period (2009 - 11) utilising meetings throughout England, with over 100 representatives of FE and HE disability support services and NMH support providers. Discussions were also held with representatives from Student Finance England (SFE) and BIS including presenting a draft of the Charter to delegates at the NADP (National Association of Disability Practitioners) autumn conference in Nov 11. This was closely followed by the adoption by many Universities (including the Russell group as a whole) and many support providers as a quality assurance tool. The charter was adopted by the University of Bolton in 2014 and is on the Disability services website (see below)
http://www.bolton.ac.uk/Students/AdviceAndSupport/ServicesForDisabledStudents/Policies.aspx
The invited providers were then scored on a scale of 1-10 against each of the ten precepts, plus an additional question about their awareness of recent proposed changes made by BIS, by a panel comprising of the Head of Library and Student Services, the Disability Service manager and the acting Disability Service Team Leader. These scores were then collated and an average taken. This then informed the basis of the decision as to which suppliers were chosen to become the University of Bolton’s partnership providers from September 2014.
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