Student Loans Company: what happens next

The report released today by the Audit Commission doesn't seem very hopeful does it? The news coverage is all over this like a rash at present - C4, BBC, Times Higher, etc etc. The Student Loans Company and Student Finance England are in a pickle it would appear. The news reports have not unreasonably focused on the horrendous backlogs of unprocessed applications and the problems of answering phone enquiries (87% at one point not getting through: nice).

Anyway.

Buried in the report, was this particular paragraph that caught my eye:

Organisations representing disabled students have expressed concerns that due 2.21 to delays and changes to assessments in 2009 there have been adverse impacts on students, suppliers and assessment centres. The Company says that while it may have handled cases differently from some local authorities, it is applying existing rules correctly and uniformly; and its requirement for assessment centres to obtain more than one quotation before paying for services has been welcomed by some groups. It remains clear, however, that the Company underestimated the volume of work required to process these applications and did not allocate enough staff to the task. While it increased staffing, from 14 to 25 in August, then to 36 in November, we consider that this is likely to be fewer than the number of experienced processing staff that worked within 130 local authorities. [My emphasis added]

Hmmmmm... 36 staff versus 130 individual local authority departments staffed by individuals who probably had several years experience of dealing with Disabled Students Allowances queries.

Nope, cannot think why the Audit Commission may "consider that this is likely to be fewer than the number of experienced processing staff that worked within 130 local authorities"....