Emails as Rep with complaints team NCLAN

BY EMAIL
russellashcroft@rocketmail.com
Dear Russell,
Thank you for bringing your fellow Students’ case to my attention. I have asked my Senior
Student Funding Assistant to investigate your complaint and she has shared her findings with
me.
Due to Data Protection legislation, I cannot discuss specifics of your fellow Students Funding
Application. I notice that you’ve referred to him only by his first name, so I assume that you
are content for me to outline only the general principles that are applicable to this case?
You have quoted sections from the Equality Act 2010 in regards to Indirect Discrimination
where age is a protected characteristic. The following section has been copied from the
Government website:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/equality-act-2010-guidance

“The Equality Act 2010 includes provisions that ban age discrimination against adults in the
provision of services and public functions. The ban came into force on 1 October 2012 and it
is now unlawful to discriminate on the basis of age unless:

 the practice is covered by an exception from the ban

 good reason can be shown for the differential treatment (‘objective justification’)

The ban on age discrimination is designed to ensure that the new law prohibits only harmful
treatment that results in genuinely unfair discrimination because of age. It does not outlaw
the many instances of different treatment that are justifiable or beneficial”.

It is my understanding that a person under 18 years of age would be an exception under

Schedule 18 of the Act.

When making assessments for Bursary/EMA, the College is required to apply the conditions
outlined in the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) Bursary Policy, a link to which is shown
below. This states that a Student is only deemed eligible for an award if (amongst other
things) they are beyond their statutory school leaving date:
http://www.sfc.ac.uk/web/FILES/GUI_SFCGD042016_Nationalpolicyforfurthereducationbur
sari/SFCGD042016_Bursary_-_Award_Assessment.pdf
The Statutory school leaving date is defined at paragraph 47 of the SFC Policy is the first day
of the Christmas holidays or 21st December if the student reaches 16 years of age on or after 1 st
October but before the following 1st March. This is a pre-determined date as defined in the
Education (Scotland) Act 1980.
As a publicly-funded body, the College relies upon the SFC to distil all extant Laws and
Regulations into their Policies, which we apply (and are audited upon). I have included,
below, the contact details for Jane Scott (Funding Policy Officer at SFC) jscott@sfc.ac.uk ,
should you wish to appeal this decision.
Yours sincerely
Janice McAulay
Assistant Principal: Finance
Russell Ashcroft <russellashcroft@rocketmail.com>

To
Janice McAulay
28 Oct at 5:08 PM

Thank you for your letter , i shall share it with my fellow students, and try to explain the
unjust rules they have to adhere too.

Your response was as expected , a copy and paste of statute , but as you are aware, i gave you
the european statute not the UK/Scottish Governments ?

I am not a lawyer as of yet, but i feel that when this case proceeds to the next stages, we can
prove that failure to provide a small percentage of the student base the same as all others in
there peer group. can and does lead to not only hardship, but the negative effects within the
victims own mind, is unquantifiable,we can not presume that those concerned, have a happy
healthy home life,the amounts we are talking about might not be much to others, but to a
large percentage of students its the difference between , Nourishment,Attendance of college
and most importantly not feeling different from the rest of us.

Do you have any solutions outwith E.M,A for Zak?

For example, i noticed in your procedures and on government websites, that the college has
the right to single out certain groups in need of help and funnel funds to them from the
discretionary fund, could this not be done for Zak?

Also it might help us to know the current number of students , currently an anomaly, due to
there Birth. that would be all students enrolled in 29th Aug 2016 that have turned 16 before
Jan 1st 2017. this will help me understand if there is a budgetary issue for this year, and then
we can help you find a solution that can work in the short term.

Meanwhile i shall contact our MSP Jamie hepburn to discuss what actions we the student
body can take , until those whom can, make amendments to the current unfair procedures, for
the benefit of our student body and the people of Scotland.

Regards
Russell Ashcroft
Class Rep
Janice McAulay <Janice.McAulay@nclan.ac.uk>

To
russellashcroft@rocketmail.com
2 Nov at 4:54 PM

Hi Russell,

Further to your email on Friday, I have spoken with my contact at Scottish Funding Council
who has provided the following Scottish Government contact. The Scottish Government issue
the guidance for EMA and Scott may be able to assist with the policy fundamentals that you’d
queried in your complaint.

Scott Gray
Youth Transitions to Employment
Fair Work Directorate
Scottish Government
6th Floor
Atlantic Quay
150 Broomilaw
Glasgow
G2 8LU
Email address: scott.gray@gov.scot

Additionally, please let Zak know that he may contact the Student Advisors, in confidence, to
discuss anything (financial or otherwise) which might impact upon his studies. Their email
addresses are:
William.findlay@nclan.ac.uk
Linda.Williamson@nclan.ac.uk

Russell Ashcroft <russellashcroft@rocketmail.com>

To
Janice McAulay
2 Nov at 5:57 PM
Thank you, i shall remind zak of the help on offer , but this complaint is on behalf of our
class , not Zak.
Zak attended Key support , and was let down greatly , you should have been there when he
returned from them , what ever they said to him , is the reason we his classmates have taken
up the mantle to get things changed , further more we have one more anomaly, in class Kieran
same boat as zak but just found out.
Should i raise a separate complaint for him ?

Also do you have a list of the full and complete, college procedures for campaigning at and in
campus, i envision a little bit of campaigning will be in order , for us to remedy this situation.

Regards

Russell Ashcroft
Class Rep