What We Do - The Audit and Accreditation Process

In order to ensure that students receive a high quality of service in the Disabled Students Allowances (DSA) process, the Department for Education (DfE) recommend that funding bodies, Open University and local authorities use only those assessment centres and Assistive Technology Service (ATS) providers who have registered with the Disabled Students Allowances Quality Assurance Group (DSA-QAG).

To become a registered member of DSA-QAG, assessment centres and ATS providers need to meet criteria specified by DSA-QAG. These are laid out in the Quality Assurance Framework (QAF) for assessment centres and ATS providers.

Annual organisational audits aim to ensure that organisations involved are providing the services they subscribe to, and at an acceptable quality and in a proper manner.

Our aim is to safeguard the public interest, to monitor the quality assurance system, to inform and to encourage continuous improvement in the management of quality in the sector through setting up a good practice framework and carrying out annual audits to maintain the desired quality standards. We do this by working closely with assessment centres, ATS providers, the student's funding body, Open University and student organisations to define standards and quality, and we carry out regular reviews against those standards.

DSA-QAG are not involved with quality assuring the contents of assessments reports produced by qualified assessors within registered assessment centres, nor does it have the remit to be involved with funding awarded by any funding body. These areas are dealt with specifically by the appropriate body.

Assessment centres and ATS providers pay standard membership fees to DSA-QAG. These sources of income provide the mainstream funding for maintaining DSA-QAG operations.