What is a Specialist DSA Mentor?

What is a specialist mentor?

A specialist mentor provides one-to-one support to help you manage the barriers that a condition or difference creates around studying.

That might mean workload, organisation, anxiety, motivation, or managing transitions like starting a new year or preparing for placements.

It is practical support. It is not counselling or therapy, and a mentor will never do your academic work for you. The aim is to build your own strategies, so you rely on the support less over time, not more.

What is the difference between specialist mentoring and study skills support?

They overlap, but the focus differs.

Specialist mentoring focuses on the barriers around study: anxiety, motivation, routine, workload, transitions, and confidence.

Specialist study skills support focuses on the mechanics of study itself: planning assignments, note-taking, reading strategies, revision, and academic writing approaches.

Your DSA Needs Assessment (explained below) will recommend which type — sometimes both.

What is DSA?

DSA stands for Disabled Students’ Allowance. It is UK government funding that pays for study support if you have a disability, long-term health condition, mental health condition, or Specific Learning Difference such as dyslexia or ADHD.

Three things students are often relieved to learn:

• DSA is not a loan. It does not need to be repaid.
• It is not means-tested. Your household income does not affect it.
• It is separate from your student loan and does not reduce it.

What happens at a DSA needs assessment?

A needs assessment is an informal meeting — in person or online — with an independent assessor. It is not a test, and you cannot fail it.

You talk through how your condition or difference affects your studies. The assessor then writes a report recommending the support and equipment that would help, which goes to your student finance body for approval.

You then receive an entitlement letter explaining what has been approved and which providers will deliver it.

Is specialist mentoring the same as counselling?

No. Mentoring can support your wellbeing, confidence, and coping strategies, but it is not counselling or therapy.

If you need mental health treatment, your GP, university wellbeing service, or NHS services are the right route — and a good mentor will help you find them, not replace them.

What is your approach to mentoring?

Our approach is built on the strongest evidence in education research: explicitly teaching you to plan, monitor, and evaluate your own learning. Researchers call this metacognition — thinking about your own thinking.

We work with the grain of how you think, not against it. If you think in webs rather than lists, we plan that way. If you generate ideas faster than you can finish them, we add tools for capturing and completing — without switching off the idea generation.

You can read more about our approach, and the evidence behind it, on our blog: [link to lateral thinking post].

Who is behind Lateral Minds?

Lateral Minds is led by Craig Miles, a Level 4 qualified DSA Specialist Mentor (autism specialism) with a PGCE teaching qualification, Qualified Teacher Status, and around three decades of experience explaining complex things in plain English — in classrooms, in industry, and one-to-one.

Lateral Minds is a trading name of Yesway Ltd, registered in England.

Where do you offer support?

Remote support is available to students anywhere in the UK, by video call.

In-person support is available across Lincolnshire & Hull and East Yorkshire.

Many students combine the two — for example, in-person sessions at key points in the year, with remote sessions in between.