Universities play a crucial role in fostering an inclusive and supportive environment, ensuring all students, including those with disabilities, have equitable access to education and campus life. Comprehensive and accessible disability services are essential to remove barriers, enhance academic and social experiences, and support diverse needs throughout the student journey.
'Strive Higher worked with The University of Surrey Disability and Neuroinclusion department in a truly consultative fashion. They led the review in a creative and compassionate manner, directing with a deep understanding of sector excellence and an awareness of the need for care during a time of change.
Co-creation was at the forefront and with the clear outcome to achieve a roadmap of a revised service provision, continuous improvement approach, Strive Higher have allowed us to begin the transition to a modern disability provision'.
-Laura Smythson, Interim Director of Student Life
The brief:
The University of Surrey (UoS) engaged Strive Higher to undertake a review of the Disability and Neuroinclusion Services (D&N) current ways of working, to identify key risks and associated opportunities for improvement through the development of a new future operating model.
The D&N service had been undergoing a number of significant changes to personnel alongside the ambition to improve service quality. Externally, HE institutions are operating in an increasingly pressurised and rapidly changing external landscape alongside a recent increase in awareness, understanding and de-stigmatising of disability and mental health issues. This has led to an increase in support requests, putting pressure on the service, so UoS needed support to find a sustainable way forward.
Our approach:
Following a review of the 'as-is' service, we recommended defining a clear service strategy, refreshed policies and processes, and the strengthening of relationships across the University, all supported by a target culture and adoption of a continuous improvement approach. The strategy adopts the social model of disability which underpins the service design principles. Together this will support transforming service quality. By approaching the delivery holistically, we ensured the required changes can be appropriately embedded to move the service into a sustainable future state.
We led a series of workshops to co-create the future design of this student-facing service with experts across UoS. These workshops were a safe space to share approaches, experiences and break down silos so we could imagine the future possibilities. Beyond the workshops, we worked with UoS to build a roadmap for implementation and embedded it with a continual service improvement approach.
Outcomes:
A clear, consistent and compassionate vision for the future with an implementation roadmap and the tools to support delivery,
Revised service approach to support an improved student experience for all,
Staff collaboratively engaged in the development of the future state for the Disability and Neuroinclusion service,
Co-created target culture to guide the behaviours and tone of the service.
Read more about our Education & Student Experience, Strategy Development and Transformation & Change service offerings.