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Case ref:201507701
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Date:November 2016
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Body:Edinburgh College
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Sector:Colleges
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Outcome:Some upheld, recommendations
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Subject:special needs - assessment and provision
Summary
Mr and Mrs C complained on behalf of their son (Mr A) who is a former student at Edinburgh College. They complained that although Mr A had been diagnosed as dyslexic, the college delayed in organising the agreed support he needed. They also said that specific agreed support had not been available to him on the day of an exam and that after he received his results, he received inadequate feedback. They complained about the way the college dealt with their formal complaint about these matters.
We investigated the complaint and found no evidence of a delay in the college's processing of Mr A's request for support. However, other agencies were also involved in this, over which the college had no control.
In the meantime, the college updated Mr A's lecturers about his level of support but on the day of an assessment, although a computer was available it did not have a spellcheck facility. A separate room for Mr A's use was also not made available. As these things were part of Mr A's support plan, we upheld this part of the complaint. However, we found no evidence that the college had provided inadequate feedback on his assessment. Like other students, Mr A's papers were returned to him annotated with the marker's comments.
When Mr and Mrs C complained, the college explored details of their concerns with them but took too long in terms of their stated complaints policy to deal with the matter. We upheld this aspect of the complaint.
Recommendations
We recommended that the college:
- apologise for the delay in responding to the complaint.