Uni place denied cause of disability!

onthecase

Can anyone give an advice please?

My future daughter in law has osteoporosis (aged 23) quite severe, and is in receipt of disability allowance (has car). She is currently on benefits but does not want to be, she wants to get a good job with career prospects!

She has been doing a Uni access course for ODP in the health service, had an interview and accepted at a University to start in September.

She was contacted by the Uni about a month ago and asked to go to see a specialist and they thought lifting patients may be an issue. At the interview the specialist said she may not be able to do the course, but would refer the case. On the second visit the specialist said she would recommend she could go on the course but with certain limitations (no heavy lifting).

My DIL has just had a phone call from the Uni saying they are withdrawing their offer due to her disability as they cannot make reasonable adjustments.

To say she is devastated is an understatement. She has worked so hard for this and is weeks away from completing the foundation course, for which she has got fantastic results!

Does anyone know where to get help? ie, Are all health service graduate courses not suitable for disabled? Surely they should have not allowed her to do the foundation course if they knew she wouldn't be allowed to do the degree? What degree could she do that would let her get into the health service?

Any ideas/help greatly appreciated! Thank you.

clouty

Perhaps the Disability Discrimination Act (now called the Equality Act) applies, which places an obligation on employers and institutions to make reasonable adjustments. The National Union of Students might also be able to help - this webpage might be worth a look http://www.nus.org.uk/en/campaigns/disability/

Does the University have a Disabled Students Association? Worth contacting too, if so.

Good luck!

rogerblack

onthecase wrote: »

My DIL has just had a phone call from the Uni saying they are withdrawing their offer due to her disability as they cannot make reasonable adjustments.
<snip>

Does anyone know where to get help? ie, Are all health service graduate courses not suitable for disabled? Surely they should have not allowed her to do the foundation course if they knew she wouldn't be allowed to do the degree?

Several issues.
Firstly - relying on lower-level course providers to know the policies of higher-level providers is problematic - and possibly illegal - if they can (and seemingly could) make reasonable adjustments.
Was this the same institution?

However - employers and other providers are only under a duty to make reasonable adjustments.

I'd start out by writing to them, and asking what reasonable adjustments were considered, and why these are not applicable.

As to 'the disabled' - well - that's a somewhat wide brush.
Abilities are going to vary from those in persistant vegatative states, on to those who can function better than most people.

kurgon

I have concerns that they feel she needs to lift people. Moving and handling is an essential part of healthcare, but doesn't preclude you from doing it. Many NHS jobs are now advertised as 'needing to be fit to carry out the job', however this is assessed by OH at the time of interview and is dependant on the job. Many jobs don't require any patient handling and in fact there are also a variety of non-pateint contact jobs that she could access. I am not sure they have consideed this properly and would ask for their equality imapct assessment. If they can't or won't provide this, then you have legal recourse to look at the decision.

Dunroamin

kurgon wrote: »

I have concerns that they feel she needs to lift people. Moving and handling is an essential part of healthcare, but doesn't preclude you from doing it. Many NHS jobs are now advertised as 'needing to be fit to carry out the job', however this is assessed by OH at the time of interview and is dependant on the job. Many jobs don't require any patient handling and in fact there are also a variety of non-pateint contact jobs that she could access. I am not sure they have consideed this properly and would ask for their equality imapct assessment. If they can't or won't provide this, then you have legal recourse to look at the decision.

I think an ODP who couldn't lift might put a lot of pressure on the rest of the team.

MrsManda

onthecase wrote: »

Does anyone know where to get help? ie, Are all health service graduate courses not suitable for disabled? Surely they should have not allowed her to do the foundation course if they knew she wouldn't be allowed to do the degree? What degree could she do that would let her get into the health service?

Did the college where she did her FD do an assessment?

The university has a responsibility to make an informed decision as to whether she'll be able to complete the course and also whether she'll be able to meet the Health Professional Council's Standards of Proficiency for ODPs by the end of the course. If she's not going to be able to meet the HPC fitness of practice standards it'd be irresponsible of the university to allow her to start the course only for her to not be able to carry on/be employed once she graduates.

She should be able to get a copy of the report to see what the limitations/restrictions are so that she can get the university to explain why they cannot make the adjustments. This will allow her to understand whether she has reasons to appeal or needs to readjust her career plans.

This doesn't mean that she's not able to do any healthcare course, there are many careers within the health service which don't require the lifting of patients.

Some links which may be helpful.

http://www.codp.org.uk/faq.php#disabilityodp

http://www.hpc-uk.org/assets/documents/10001344Managingfitnesstopractise.pdf

http://www.nhscareers.nhs.uk/notSure.shtml

beth.stephenson2009

Personally,

I think it is fair. What is she doing to do when she is qualified- refuse to do certain tasks?

If she isn't up to it, she isn't up to it.

Unfortunatly sometimes that is the way the mop flops.

Look at this way: They have tried their best to accomodate her- if they didn't care, they would of just said no in the first place.

I suggest she looks for something else.

rogerblack

beth.stephenson2009 wrote: »

Personally,

I think it is fair. What is she doing to do when she is qualified- refuse to do certain tasks?

If it is a reasonable adjustment an employer could make - then yes.

I don't know details of this role.

If the disability does not impact a sizeable fraction of the job, and there are in most employers enough people that the task can be spread around, then this is likely to be a reasonable adjustment.

If however, the role would normally involve going out alone, and doing various tasks - and the disability means that they can't effectively do it alone - it may not be.

System

I think people talking about employer and workplace are clouding the issue.

The problem, as I see it, is that the course requires a student must do A, B & C to complete the course and gain the qualification. They have had a specialist assess the potential student who has said that they can do A & B but should not do C. The uni quite rightly has withdrawn the offer because there is no likelihood of success in the course if C can not be done.

If lifting (heavy or not) is part of the course then reasonable adjustment can not be asking other students to do it for the person who can't. The student must be able to do it.

supersuzie50

I am deaf and I would not think of taking a job which involved using the phone. I do not expect other people to take on my responsibilities. I accept my limitations. It is not always possible to make adjustments. Adults should accept their limitations and find a job they can do.

jannie_by_the_sea

This is a hard job for some-one with OP. Even though now lifting is not encouraged and hoists are used it still requires an awful lot of bending and handling.
I'm sorry your DIL has been turned down now after first being accepted but it wouldn't be reasonable to put her through this course if there was little or no chance of being able to complete and the chance of a job at the end would be difficult to get.
I too have OP and many other ailments and although retired now would never have embarked on this road.
She needs to contact the place that supplied her access course and see what they suggest.