Children with special needs hit by cuts
Loss of funding ‘has left services at breaking point’
VULNERABLE YOUNG people are bearing the brunt of austerity cuts, campaigners have warned, as a raft of measures are brought in to cut services for children with special needs in Yorkshire.
Funding for services from teaching resources to transport has been slashed over recent months, with headteachers in Hull writing to the Education Secretary to warn they are at “breaking point” over their ability to meet the needs of the most vulnerable in society.
Now, as parents prepare for protests and High Court action, North Yorkshire looks to consult on a review of its entire service which could impact on one in 10 of its school population. Documents seen by The Yorkshire Post suggest savings will need to be made in areas including £80,000 in early-years funding, £253,000 in residential funding and £386,000 in specialneeds funding for mainstream schools. The authority, along with others across the county, says it is facing hefty deficits under the Government’s National Funding Formula and must find a way to mitigate this.
But charities and unions, pleading for more funding from central Government, warn the impact of such “short-sighted” measures will be felt across all children’s education for decades to come.
“While we recognise the significant financial pressures that local authorities are under to balance the books, we don’t believe the solution is to pass this pressure onto vulnerable children and families,” said Amanda Batten, chief executive at children’s charity Contact.
“It can’t be right that children with the highest levels of need are paying the biggest price for cuts to local authority budgets – whether that be school transport, education or social care.”
The National Education Union has previously warned that young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) are at risk of exclusion over recent funding cuts.
More than 900 teachers in England who responded to a survey had witnessed cuts to SEND support in schools and SEND posts.
Anne Heavey, education policy adviser for the National Education Union (NEU), said local budgets had never been adequate, yet an inability to “top up the pot” is leading to rationing.
“The cuts to schools budgets
A CHILD with special needs, says mother Shain Wells, can thrive in mainstream schooling.
With the right support, they gain independence. Their peers, playing football or in the lunch queue, can learn about inclusion and diversity. If that support is stripped away, she says, it becomes a question of impact on a child struggling to cope, on teachers, and on the other 29 children in a classroom.
Simple measures such as teaching assistants, support networks and access to services can make it possible.
As these are stripped away, she warns, the cracks begin to show.
“Children with disabilities become adults with disabilities,” she warns.
“The more support they get as children, the less they need as adults. Cuts are a short-term solution.”
She adds: “I know budgets are tight. I get that. Saving money from our bottom line, targeting our single most disadvantaged group of children with disabilities, is pretty low.”
Mrs Wells’s son Mitchell, 10, has autism. With a primary school that has made sure it can staff a teaching assistant, he is thriving. But, living in Menston, they come under Bradford Council’s education authority as they plan ahead to secondary schooling.
With measures passed this month to restructure teaching support, between 30 and 35 posts will be lost.
“Inclusive education is fantastic,” she said.
“It’s a real positive to see diversity in schools, because that leads to a positive approach to diversity in adult life.
“We are making it so difficult to deliver a proper education for children in mainstream schools – we are isolating them in special schools. That’s what people did in the 1960s.
“It would be a shame if my son was stuck in a special school somewhere, and his peers missed out on knowing him. Because he’s pretty brilliant.”
Callum Weatherill, a specialneeds teacher and pastoral lead for a school in West Yorkshire, left teaching a few years ago.
“I got out at the right time,” he said. “As I left, the budgets were crashing. There’s huge funding cuts across the region. Knock-on support for all pupils is affected.
“It’s usually the teaching assistants that go. And then those youngsters with special needs and challenging behaviours – how can they cope? It’s a toxic mix.”
Most children don’t need specialist provision, he says, they just need support.
“Schools are papering over the cracks,” he warns. “And it’s impacting on those who don’t have a voice to fight against it.”
In Beningbrough, near York, mother Kerry Fox is preparing for battle. Her son Alfie, nearly 19, has cerebral palsy, speech and language difficulties and epilepsy.
They have witnessed a succession of slow cuts, she says, chipping away at the thin walls families are struggling to maintain, making it increasingly difficult to access services.
Now it is transport. Plans by North Yorkshire County Council to charge special-needs pupils over 16 for travel to school, saving £57,000 a year, moved forward this week.
“It’s relentless,” she said.
“This is the straw that has broken the camel’s back. We are on our knees, buckling under the strain.”
The costs mount up for a young person with special needs, she warns. Medical appointments, respite, a wheelchair at £8,000 – the cost of a new car.
Campaigners, forming the Save Centre Services North Yorkshire (SCSNY) group, raised enough money crowdfunding over just a single weekend to pay for legal representation at Tuesday’s meeting.
If the plans are passed at full council on May 16, she said, they will look to judicial review over the consultation.
“The choices, for young people and their schools, are diminishing,” she said.
“The mainstream schools are finding it difficult with funding.
“Our specialist schools are fit to burst. We’ve got young people travelling from one end of the county to the other.
“If authorities are struggling, families are struggling a hell of a lot worse.
“It can’t go on any longer. We’re all buckling. It’s happening across Yorkshire, across the country.
“Schools are saying it, families are saying it.
“If everybody is singing from the same hymn sheet, it’s time the Government woke up.”
It’s impacting on those who don’t have a voice to fight against it. Callum Weatherill, a special-needs teacher and pastoral lead for a school in West Yorkshire.