Fears of ‘looming disaster’ over changes to special educational needs provision

TEACHERS AND union officials have lined up to warn proposed radical changes to the funding of special educational needs provision will have a chain of disastrous social and economic consequences.

Staff from the North Yorkshire’s seven Pupil Referral Units have issued the alert just days before North Yorkshire County Council closes its consultation on “remodelling” its budget for children and young people with high needs.

They have claimed proposed changes will lead to Pupil Referral Units closing or losing most of their staff and seriously restricting their varied curriculum.

They also say it will lead to increased truancy, child exploitation and antisocial behaviour and more costs to the public purse.

A consultation meeting at County Hall, in Northallerton saw council officers emphasise changes were necessary as the £44.8m government funding the authority receives for special educational provision had not increased in line with the soaring number of people aged 25 and under assessed as needing an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).

Around 1.6 per cent of the 163,000 people aged 25 and below in the county have an EHCP, but this is expected to rise to more than 3,300 by 2022, a 30 per cent increase.

The meeting became heated as teachers said the council’s proposals would see alternative education provision cut by more than 80 per cent at units such as those in Northallerton, Harrogate and Scarborough over the next six months.

Art teacher Kate Kersey said it would be impossible to run many subjects under the proposals.

English teacher Alex Boyce said students that were “already at the edge of the community would lose their safety net”.

After the meeting, National Education Union organiser Karen Carberry said the council needed to listen to what it was being told by teachers, parents and students.