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12
Jan 2024
Last Updated: 12/01/2024
Special educational needs 'council's biggest financial challenge', says Andrew Jones
Funding for children with special educational needs is the biggest financial challenge facing North Yorkshire Council, according to Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones.
Speaking in Parliament yesterday, Mr Jones said recent changes to the Children and Families Act 2014 were believed to have led to 1,000 extra claims for financial assistance in North Yorkshire alone last year.
He called for a debate on the impact of changes to the Act and the effect they are having through increased demand for services on local authorities.
Mr Jones said:
"I have met with several families in my constituency whose children have education, health and care plans, yet they still experience difficulties finding special educational needs and disabilities support.
"I have taken up their cases with senior council officers, who tell me that SEND is the number one financial challenge for the council.
"In North Yorkshire alone, the council believes 1,000 cases last year were attributable to changes made by that Act."
School 'can not meet the needs of children'
A separate parliamentary debate on SEND provision and funding yesterday laid bare the impact the changes are having on local children.
Munira Wilson, the Liberal Democrat education spokesperson, said:
"I went to visit Coppice Valley Primary School in Harrogate in October, where I had a long chat with the leadership team about SEND issues.
"Heartbreakingly, the school’s SEND lead, who is passionate about his job and brilliant at it, is leaving his job because he does not feel that he can meet the needs of the children he has been hired to serve, due to the problems that the school is having in accessing the resources that it needs from North Yorkshire Council."
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