County Council MUST Rethink Disgraceful SEND Cuts

I’ve called on Staffordshire County Council to reverse its decision to cut funding for a vital Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) outreach programme led by Merryfields School in Newcastle-under-Lyme.

The County Council’s £40,000 cut ended Merryfields’ outreach work supporting children with SEND in mainstream schools across our community. This is a programme that made a real difference – helping teachers and pupils to get the support they need to thrive.

Merryfields is one of only ten schools in the country to be recognised as a National Centre of Excellence in Autism Education, and it’s a source of real pride for our area. During my visit to the school last week, I saw first-hand the dedication of the staff and the impact of their work. To see that success undermined by a funding cut is deeply disappointing.

Merryfields is a fantastic school doing outstanding work for children with complex needs. To see a nationally recognised Centre of Excellence lose the funding that helped share its expertise across local schools in our community is deeply disappointing and – frankly – a disgrace.

I urge the County Council to think again, because this £40,000 cut comes after news that the Council has approved the recruitment of new political assistants with a price tag of more than £140,000. Politics is about choices – and I know what I would choose, and what the people of Newcastle-under-Lyme would choose too.

I have also challenged the County Council over its refusal to allow Merryfields to expand into neighbouring land owned by the authority – a move that could have helped address the severe shortage of specialist school places across the borough.

In my letter to Cllr Ian Cooper, I said:

“This decision represents a missed opportunity to invest in the future of local children with complex needs and adds to the levels of stress, expectation and worry that many parents and carers feel in our community.

They are rightly stressed by their constant demands for help, they rightly expect their child to get the best start in life and they rightly worry about their children’s future if they don’t get the support they need at the earliest stage in life.”

I’ve requested a meeting with Cllr Cooper to discuss restoring the outreach funding and reconsidering Merryfields’ expansion plans. I will continue to press Staffordshire County Council to put children with special educational needs and disabilities at the heart of its priorities – not at the bottom of the list.