Warning over region’s vulnerable children

NORTH YORKSHIRE’S “most vulnerable children” may be lost to the education system, parents and former students warned during an emotional meeting about potential changes to the county’s High Needs Budget.

Parents, school and union representatives met with North Yorkshire County Council officials during a consultation meeting at Harrogate’s Cedar Court.

The council is proposing a three-pronged approach as it tries to claw back a £5.5m overspend due to Government underfunding, sparking fears of drastic cuts in school curriculums, as well as a loss of places at pupil referral units.

The units are designed to help students facing permanent exclusion from a mainstream school, but also accept pupils who cannot be taught in a regular classroom setting due to behavioural and mental health problems.

One former student of Harrogate PRU Grove Academy told the meeting that the alternative provision secondary school had got her through what had been “the hardest times of my life”.

“Without them I’d be in jail... what do [cuts] mean for pupils like me who physically can’t sit in rooms with 30 other people?” she told councillors.

The county council’s assistant director for inclusion, June le Sage, said its £44.8m budget was based on historic trends of traditionally low numbers of students.

But in two years, there has been an increase of 1,014 children requiring special educational needs support, leaving the council having to do more with less.

Ms le Sage said carrying the £5.5m overspend would “break” the council. Part of the authority’s ongoing strategy is to lobby Government for an increase in funding in the sector.

The Harrogate meeting was the last before public consultation ends on November 11.