Classroom help for special needs children could be slashed

8:59am Wednesday 12th November 2003

CLASSROOM help for some special needs children could be cut in half as Buckinghamshire County Council tries to get rid of a £500,000 overspend.

The idea has already been universally criticised by people involved – and it could be illegal.

The council's cabinet member for children and young people, Margaret Aston, has not yet made a decision.

But she said: "If I don't do this I shall have to do something else that may be just as unpopular." She has asked for legal opinion and is still waiting for the result.

Cllr Aston wrote to schools on October 21 saying the special educational needs budget was heading for an overspend with no prospect of things getting better. It was happening, even though the council had put significantly more money into special needs education. "I have been trying to explore a range of options to contain spending," she wrote.

An officers' report said spending could be cut by halving the hours classroom assistants spent with children with statements of special needs. It added the idea had been met with almost total resistance, but the debate had to be held.

"The decision, if it is made, will not sit comfortably with the county council's view of inclusion, but some reduction is needed to meet targets.

"If not the overspend will go on year on year which is not acceptable and money will have to come out of all school budgets."

Cllr Aston said the cut would only apply to children with new statements.

"I am reluctant to do this, because I recognise the potential impact this change may have, but my room to manoeuvre within the available resources is very limited," she wrote.

"I want to make it clear that I have not reached a decision and I will consider the views expressed before I do."

The budget suffering is the £3.2 million for special classroom assistants for children with statements. These children, who could be disabled or with learning or behavioural difficulties, are entitled to extra support.

John Beckerleg, the council's strategic manager for children and young people, said costs were going up by about two per cent a month, as the number of statemented children and the complexity of their problems increased, and would be over the budget by 16 per cent by the end of March.

"The council needs to have views about priorities and needs to hold council tax to a reasonable level."

He added that new government funding rules for next year would limit what the council could put into special needs.

He said there might be other ways of supporting schools with statemented children but if the money was spent on special assistants something else might have to suffer.

The chairman of governors at Cressex School in High Wycombe, Katy Simmons, said change would be unlawful and that parents would fight in court.

She said in 1998 the House of Lords had ruled that East Sussex County Council could not cut the hours of support for a child. The Lords said councils could not take money into account when assessing needs.

Mrs Simmons said: "Schools are really upset about this."

Cllr Aston said she had to get her budget under control. "People won't be happy but it's a matter of getting a quart out of a pint pot."

She said she was working with the schools department to see whether there was something else that could be done.