USUALLY the fallout follows the big bang, but in the case of the local elections it could be the other way round.
Once the post-election wrangling is out of the way, leaders in town halls will need to brace themselves for a bomb, in the shape of yet more local authority budget cuts.
It is a pretty dismal prospect for families with children who need extra help at school. In the run up to the elections, new figures revealed councils had cut spending per pupil by 11 per cent on average over the past three years, from £4,276 per head to £3,817.
There were much bigger cuts to the amount spent on children requiring additional support for learning in some areas than others – in Angus (71 per cent) and South Lanarkshire (61 per cent) families have seen the biggest cuts, but even where funding increased, it was marginal.
It’s another example of austerity impacting on the most vulnerable, in this case children with social, emotional or behavioural difficulties, dyslexia, autism or growing up in care.
The Scottish Children’s Services Coalition (SCSC) a group representing leading private and charity child care providers, was pressing candidates for the council elections to pledge to reverse these cuts, but even preventing further reductions would be a start.
It is becoming a serious problem for schools, though, particularly the policy of putting children with additional needs in mainstream schools.
As The Herald reported in December last year, surveys by learning disability charity Enable Scotland have shown neither pupils with learning disabilities, nor their parents, nor teachers themselves believe the policy is working well for many young people.
The SCSC linked the concern over ASN spending directly with the “mainstreaming” issue. “These young people have a right to a learning and teaching process that suits them best, and if we are to close the educational attainment gap and improve educational outcomes it is vital that we address their needs,” said the group’s Kenny Graham.
Education secretary John Swinney has pledged a review of guidance on mainstreaming, but the real issue is the funding available to follow that guidance.
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