Parents of special needs children face an anxious time as new schools come on line. Representatives of support group Wigwam believe Guernsey Education is going along the right lines with co-located schools at Le Rondin and Les Nicolles. But they are urging the department to get staffing right. Jan Aslett’s son, Jack 6, will be going to the new school at Le Rondin when it opens. ‘It’s all about staffing, manpower, and expertise which we lack at the moment. I just hope we don’t in the new school.
Guernsey Press and Star, April 4, 2005

Liverpool parents will step into the election campaign today when they take their protests against the closure of special needs schools to Downing Street. Liverpool City Council has provoked anger by proposing to shut up to 10 of the city’s 14 special schools, as part of a policy to promote ‘inclusion’. Council leaders have pointed to a decline in pupil numbers as more parents with special needs children send them to mainstream schools. They have insisted that no child will suffer a loss of support if they are transferred to mainstream schools – and that the Council is simply following Government’s guidelines. The protest trip to Downing Street has been organised by city Labour MPs Louise Ellman (Riverside) and Maria Eagle (Garston) who is the Minister for disabled people. Ms. Eagle said people complained they were not getting the help they needed and said she was concerned that the Lib-Dem’s Council was not ‘statementing’ children quickly enough. However, a city council spokesman insisted it was ‘justifiably proud’ of completing 99 per cent of statements within the Government’s 18-week limit.
Liverpool Daily Post, April 7, 2005

Part of Bedale High School, North Yorkshire, is to have a dramatic new look with major alterations to its main entrance almost 50 years after the building was opened to the first pupils. Tenders have been invited for the work which is expected cost between £80,000 £100,000 and it is hoped it will be completed in time for the Autumn term. The head teacher, Graham Turner, said the improvements brought the school in line with requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act and would also create a more welcoming approach to the school for everybody.
Darlington and Stockton Times (North Yorkshire), April 8, 2005

A Wigan special school threatened with closure has won a reprieve after a top judge granted a local man permission to challenge the decision. Wigan Council wants to shut Mere Oaks special school in Boars Head in September 2006. Anthony Webster, the Schools Adjudicator, based in Darlington, approved the Council’s proposed move in September 2004. Mr. Justice Beatson, sitting at London’s High Court, granted Graham Bradshaw, a member of Save Mere Oaks Action Group, permission to challenge the adjudicator’s decision on financial grounds. The judge said that the adjudicator had arguably not given sufficient attention to the question of how the changes would be financed. He denied claims that the adjudicator had not looked properly at the education and healthcare of pupils should they be moved to new schools. The case will now go forward for a half-day hearing on a date which has yet to be fixed. An education authority spokesperson said: ‘We’ve noted the ruling which has been made on the adjudicator’s decision and how he reached it, rather than on the strength of the LEA’s case.’
Wigan Evening Post, April 9, 2005

A mother has challenged education officials to haul her before the courts after her 11-year-old son missed months of lessons because he is suicidal at the thought of going to school. Gail Shallcross’s defiant stance comes after a long running battle to get son Dean into a special school where she feels his emotional and behavioural problems will be better tackled. Although parents are asked to nominate a suitable school as part of the assessment process, the Council can reject their nomination. An educational psychologist has found no evidence Dean’s difficulties are severe enough to justify sending him to Abbey Hill School in Bucknall, the Shallcross’s preferred option. Instead the statement says he should have five hours of additional support in a mainstream school every week.
Sentinel (Stoke-on-Trent) final edition, April 16, 2005

Bradford Council has said it is doing all it can to ensure children with Down’s Syndrome will not be left without support they need as part of plans to change special needs teaching in the area. The council is carrying out a consultation on its plans to close 10 special schools and replace them with six new units to be incorporated into mainstream schools. A final decision is due to be made next month. Members of the Bradford Down’s Syndrome Support Group say the plans are inadequate and they also fear special needs cash will be diverted to fill the council’s education funding gap.
Yorkshire Post (West/Leeds), April 18, 2005

Special school teachers in Leeds say they feel ‘betrayed and misled’ by Education Leeds over plans to axe staff at a group of schools by more than a third. They spoke out as parents of special schoolchildren lobbied Leeds City Council over fears that the future of their children’s care and education is in jeopardy. The row centres on a decision to move many special school children into mainstream schools in the city under a scheme known as ‘inclusion’. Parents fear staff redundancies and closures of some special schools means there will be nowhere for children with severe disabilities to return to if mainstream cannot cope. Under the inclusion scheme special needs education has been divided up into Special Inclusive Learning Centres (SILC) covering small groups of schools across the city. Education Leeds is planning redundancies of seven teachers and nine nursery nurses at schools covered by the North West Leeds SILC. Council leader Andrew Carter said no redundancy notices had yet been served and Education Leeds was trying to work through the issues with the staff concerned.
Yorkshire Evening Post (Leeds edition), April 21, 2005

Scores of schools and colleges could face tribunals for failing to provide equal access for disabled people. A total of 622 organisations are being investigated after complaints about lack of access to education in Meryseyside and Cheshire under the six-month-old Disability Discrimination Act.
Huyton and Roby Star, April 21, 2005

Most people believe children with special needs should be taught in mainstream schools, despite a recent political row over the closure of special schools, research found this week. The overwhelming majority of social care workers – 76 per cent – also backed the inclusion policy, according to a survey for Community Care magazine.
Ipswich Evening Star, April 29, 2005