[arewhorn]

Hey Guys

I had my needs assessment today and the assessor recommended a laptop, printer/scanner, livescribe and all the software that others have been given such as office, dragon, mindmap etc.

I have two questions, one being if anyone knows the time it takes for me to get my equipment from this?

The other is whether I will be able to (and price?) upgrade the laptop to a macbook, purely because i've always used macbooks and find iWork a lot easier to use than office, and I find adapting to another computer system hard, especially during peak work periods.

I'd be grateful of any help any of you could give me.

Thanks a lot

[NJones]

From the date of your assessment to supplying equipment can take in the region of 4 weeks or more. Did you discuss using a Mac with the assessor? if you have used a Mac extensively they should have recommended one, but I know the funding bodies need good justification for supplying on. You will have the opportunity to pay the additional cost to the supply to upgrade when they contact you to arrange delivery.

[pipsi]

It took more than four weeks in my case. I had my needs assessment on the 19th March and have just received the letter from SFE approving the reccomendations, I'm now at the stage where I need to call the supplier on Monday to arrange delivery of my equipment. I'm not sure how long this will take. I've asked this question elsewhere on the forum with reference to the supplier I have to go through. I guess each supplier will work to different delivery times, I'm hoping to have my equipment asap.

With regards to the Mac, I discussed with my assessor the possibility of having a Sony computer because I have always used them and find them easiest to use, I've borrowed a HP laptop but it annoys the hell out of me so I'd prefer to stick with what I know. From what I can gather SFE have only approved the bog standard computer the suppliers usually supply and I have to pay to 'upgrade' (although it really isn't an upgrade) which will cost me in the region of £60 which i think is fair enough bearing in mind all of the money SFE are contributing and I wouldn't be able to afford to buy all of the equipment myself so £60 seems quite cheap.