Assembly Slashes Special Needs Education

March 15, 2010

NEWPORT teenagers with special education needs will be affected by a £340,000 cut in funding announced by the Assembly.

Newport City Council is urging the Assembly to reconsider its position after it said post-16 Special School and Special Education Needs out of county funding would be cut in Newport by 31 percent.

The council’s budget for this will be reduced from £876,983 to £764,412 for the next financial year.

Newport Council said the cut will affect the funding of Maes Ebbw School in Maesglas, the purpose-built day special school for pupils aged between three and 19 with severe learning difficulties.

It will affect its 16 pupils aged over 16 and the 15 pupils on out of county placements.

Chi ef education officer for Newport, Dr Brett Pugh, said even though the council acknowledges the difficulties faced by the Assembly it is extremely concerned about the scale of the reduction.

He said the council had not received any prior notice about the funding reduction apart from a letter received on February 24 which was a day after the council had met to set its budget for next year.

Dr Pugh said it was therefore unable to put any contingency plans in place.

He added: “We are gravely concerned about the threat to post-16 Special School and SEN out of county provisions and the potential impact this could have on some of our most vulnerable young people.”

An Assembly spokeswoman said the amount of funding allocated to local authorities for post-16 SEN provision has more than doubled since 2003.

She said this rate of increase is not sustainable and so it is investigating alternative means of funding.

She said initial allocations were made based on estimates provided by the local authorities and on the budget for this service which was set by the Assembly last year.

Jayne Peniston, chairwoman of Gwent Autistic Society, said it was news parents do not want to hear.

She said: “When they turn 16 it’s even harder. There isn’t enough funding to go round now, I dread to think what’s going to happen.”

Newport’s cabinet member for children and young persons, councillor David Hando, called it a devastating cut which should not have happened.

He said representations have been made to the Assembly and in the mean time the council will hav e to look at its own resources.