For the past few months, I’ve been labouring under the misapprehension that Summer would be a quieter time. I figured that as the academic year ends, perhaps I would be able to travel a little less, work fewer hours and get some time to catch up on paperwork and such like.

To an extent that’s true. When a conference I was due to attend last week cancelled at the last minute, I took annual leave for a week. Despite the fact that NEC members are given four or five weeks annual leave a year, it’s very rare that we actually have chance to take it. I took the opportunity to go to Eygpt on a last minute holiday and, despite the sunburn and dodgy tummy, had a great time.

But I’m guessing you don’t read my blogs for holiday updates. I’ve been chatting away to a few student officers recently about blogs and it seems that, although many people read them, there’s a difference of opinion about what they actually should be.

I’ve always favoured opinion type pieces, rather than simply posting speeches or diary entries. As exciting as my diary is (no, really….), I’d rather use the opportunity to get across to readers what we’ve been up to in the Disabled Students’ campaign, tell student officers how and why we take the stance we do on certain issues – or to encourage people to lobby or get involved in one of our campaigns.

The downside to this is, of course, that people don’t know what you actually DO on a day to day basis. So to give you an idea, this has been my four day week this week.

Monday

Annual leave – returned from Egypt

Tuesday

10am Birmingham

Met with four disability charities for a round table meeting about travel concessions and to put together a plan on lobbying for wider definitions of disability in new legislation.

(The Transport Act governs the current concessions and includes specific medical based definitions of disability which means many disabled students do not meet the necessary requirements to get cheaper travel, despite the fact that much of the transport is very difficult for them to use.)

4pm Stockport

Travelled back to Manchester and met a student officer about supporting learning disabled students and union accessibility.

Also spoke to NUS HQ about a query from the DfES and received two calls from students wanting help with individual casework.

Wednesday

AM

Wrote another briefing on the mental health act, caught up with emails and returned phone messages from annual leave.

3pm

6 hour train journey to Carmarthen. Bumped into Joe from Bangor on the train.

Arrived in Carmarthen to find Scott Cuthbertson, LGBT officer, also there having attended Wales LGBT conference. Had (what was supposed to be….) a couple of quiet drinks and stayed over in Carmarthen halls.

Thursday

10-4 Carmarthen

NUS Wales SWD conference

Congratulations to Michael Spencer from Lampeter elected as the new NUS Wales SWD officer. Good to see that conference passed universal grants policy – rejecting discriminatory targeted grants policy that harms disabled students.

5-11 Train journey back from Carmarthen

Friday

830am Manchester

Met DRC about fitness to practice.

There are several groups now working on the fact that fitness to practice has been difficult for students with mental ill health and/or learning differences. I’ve been working with the DRC on this, hoping that they will once and for all take on a piece of legal casework so the issue can be resolved successfully through the courts.

Whilst ‘guidance’ from regulatory bodies such as the Nursing Councils, BMA etc is obviously important, it often means little in reality for disabled students in their own institutions. Getting legal precedent on the issue is far more successful, meaning that students have legal rights to challenge their institution if they are falsely told they are not fit to practice in a certain profession and therefore cannot take certain courses.

PM

Spoke to Mental Health Alliance, Skill, two student officers and caught up with emails.

Oli Wood from Disabled Students committee has attended two meetings on my behalf this week as I’ve been engaged elsewhere. He’s also agreed to attend a press stunt for the Mental Health Alliance next week when I’m busy.

As ever, without the dedication and hard work of volunteers from Disabled Students’ committee, it’d be impossible to do half the work the campaign gets involved in. The committee really are the unsung heros of the Disabled Students’ campaign, always available, always making sacrifices in their own lives – always putting the campaign first in the ongoing struggle for rights for disabled students.

Each meeting, each conference, each speech and each briefing represents a step forward towards the goals we are working on. It can sometimes feel like we’re scratching the surface of the issues we need to be working on: we receive so many requests to involvement in different campaigns from different organisations. All of these are worthy, and all of them represent passionate disabled students trying to make a difference.

But, piecemeal as it may seem, every little achievement counts. All of these busy weeks, all of these trains journeys and all of these meetings can result in us loosing sight of the wider picture.

The reality is that, without our campaign, we’d probably have a damaging mental health bill, a much worse Disabled Students’ allowance, no investment in accessible transport and the voice of disabled students further marginalised with decision makers.

I’d say this was a pretty average week, perhaps a bit hectic because I was off on Monday. I’ve still got 100 emails in my inbox to look over this weekend, meaning I probably won’t make Student Pride on Saturday. I’ve still got to start work properly on the mental health day in September and Disability Sport is in the back of my mind: holding events in every region is an important part of this campaign, as is meeting the relevant partner organisations and getting some concrete information on funding. All of this takes time, seemingly the most precious commodity of a liberation officer!

Plus, I’m determined to have Sunday off this week…

If you’ve got any ideas about what would be useful to hear in my blogs, whether you prefer longer opinion pieces or detailed information about what I’ve been up to – you can, as ever, email me on alex.kemp@nus.org.uk and make my inbox even bigger :)

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