FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
27th January 2010
[BEGINS]
NUMBERS DO NOT REFLECT TRUE DEMAND
On Friday 29th January a recommendation will go before members of Gwynedd County Council Scrutiny Committee (Children & Young People) to abolish thirteen KS2 SEN units across Gwynedd. The report says that the recommendation is being made “in order to ensure the best use of resources”.
Robin Millar, Conservative Candidate for Arfon responded:
“I hope Gwynedd County Council is not looking at this as a cost-cutting exercise. These are the weakest and most vulnerable members of society with no voice of their own. I urge the Scrutiny Committee to recommend that the funding for pupils with special education needs is preserved.”
Papers for the meeting suggest that 87 pupils will be affected. Mr Millar went on to say:
“I know from speaking with Headteachers here in Arfon just how difficult it is to get a pupil into these units. In one case there are ten times as many pupils on the school’s Special Education Register as there were in the Unit. If that is representative, Councillors need to know that almost a thousand pupils across Gwynedd will be affected by the decisions they make.”
[ENDS]
(As Chairman of a Scrutiny Committee for some time now, you get a feel for the papers and agenda items that are coming up. I saw this on the Gwynedd site recently.)
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