Whilst you don’t have to tell the School about your disability, you may miss out on valuable support if you choose not to. The earlier you tell us about your needs, the sooner we can put support in place for you, so please do speak to us as soon as you can.

Any personal information you provide to the Disability and Mental Health Service is held in the strictest confidence. This information is protected by the Data Protection Act (2018) and the GDPR. With your permission, we only share relevant information about your circumstances to LSE staff on a need-to-know basis. This allows your lecturers and other staff, such as your course administrator and library staff, to provide the support and adjustments you are entitled to.

The only exception to this rule is where the withholding of information poses a significant risk of harm to yourself or others.

For family members, partners etc.

Due to legal requirements of the GDPR and Data Protection Act, we can only share information about students with their consent. If you have concerns, or are worried about one of our students, please do let us know. We may not be able to share information with you, but will respond to any concerns raised. In exceptional circumstances where we have significant concerns around safety we may contact you without the student’s consent.

You can find more information by reading our confidentiality policy. 

To confirm your eligibility for support and adjustments you will need to provide appropriate evidence of your disability. This evidence is held securely within the Disability and Mental Health Service and is only seen by staff who need to decide what specialist support you can receive. For more details on this, please see our Confidentiality Policy.  

Please note: although for full adjustments and support we require the evidence listed below, we may be able to provide you with advice and some support with a lower level of evidence. It is always worth submitting whatever evidence you have as early as possible in your application for support, and we will let you know how we can help.  

Specific learning difficulties

For specific learning difficulties i.e. dyslexia, dyspraxia etc. you will need to provide a full diagnostic assessment report carried out by an educational psychologist or suitably qualified specialist teacher. The report must give a diagnosis of a specific learning difficulty, and not simply be for the purpose of assessing the need for exam adjustments, such as extra time and the use of a computer.

We can arrange for current students to undertake new diagnostic assessments where necessary. For more information please see the specific learning difficulties page.

AD(H)D

We can accept one of the following: 

• A letter confirming the diagnosis from a medical professional such as your family doctor or psychiatrist  
• A Diagnostic Assessment Report from an educational psychologist or suitably qualified specialist teacher demonstrating significant attentional difficulties  

Autism 

We can accept one of the following:  

• A written statement or letter from a doctor or qualified medical professional, which confirms the nature of your diagnosis 
• A Statement of Special Educational Needs (SEN) by a Local Authority or an Education Health and Care Plan  

Mental health conditions 

A letter or medical pro forma written and signed by your family doctor, psychiatrist or specialist mental health team is required. Documentation from a counsellor would not usually be considered sufficient.  

For all other disabilities

For all other disabilities you must provide evidence from a suitably qualified medical professional such as a GP, consultant, specialist nurse etc. Depending on the prognosis of your condition this evidence may need to be within the last 12 months. It should specify the following:

• The name of your impairment or health condition
• When your impairment or health condition was diagnosed/identified
• How long your impairment/health condition is likely to last
• The main effects of your condition, particularly in relation to studying
• The side effects of any medication or treatment

If you do not have any suitable documentation you can ask your GP or specialist to complete our medical pro forma.

All evidence must be signed, dated, and written in English. If your evidence is not in English, you will need to provide a certified translation. Please contact your embassy for a list of authorised agencies. The original (untranslated) document must also be provided, and this must be signed by the author.  

Please provide electronic documents, not JPEGs or photos, wherever possible. 

Payment for evidence 

It is your responsibility to obtain suitable evidence and, if necessary, pay any fees incurred. However, for current LSE students, DMHS can arrange for you to be reimbursed for those charges within reasonable limits. If you are unsure, please provide details of costs before paying them, in order that we can advise how much can be reimbursed.  

If you have any questions about the evidence we require please feel free to email disability-wellbeing@lse.ac.uk for advice. 

LSE is committed to the fair and equitable treatment of all our students. We strive to foster an inclusive learning environment where students can thrive regardless of their disability, mental, or physical health condition.

For further information please see our Student Disability Policy.

We are committed to providing a high-quality, inclusive, and supportive service. When we are not able to get things right, we want to work together with you to put them right. Our complaints procedure applies to you if you have accessed the Student Wellbeing Services. 

This document outlines our complaints procedure in full including contact details.

We take all complaints seriously and aim to resolve them promptly.