Parents fight back over education cuts
SCORES of objections have been received by the council to its proposed cuts in education with the plans to slash pupil support staff and wrap-around care causing anguish among parents.
The council says the proposals have been put forward to save money while focusing on maintaining the highest quality of teaching and learning for almost 30,000 children and young people in county schools.
But comments from its Tough Choices consultation show parents are worried that children's education will suffer, especially for vulnerable pupils.
Longridge Parent Forum said: "Provision of support workers is an issue for concern. Early intervention strategies have impacted well because of the additional support provided.
"The withdrawal of these and the reduced provision of special school places raises issues for our more vulnerable pupils. It will have a very detrimental effect on attainment, ethos and level of experience for every child. Cfe (Curriculum for Excelellence] is all about active learning – these aims are not achievable with a reduction in support staff."
However, at the latest policy development scrutiny panel (PDSP) meetings discussing the cuts, senior education officers assured people that redesigning the pupil support service could facilitate the cuts, and that children with additional support needs would not be affected.
Among the major cuts are:
1.022m to be saved through staff cuts in pupil support workers;
Staff reductions in management and administration, saving 200,000;
Nursery nurses to replace 50 per cent of existing teachers saving 578,000;
Fourteen nursery schools to be re-classified as nursery classes saving 250,000;
915,000 will be saved through changes to national standards and conditions;
Staff reductions for modern language classes;
Raise secondary school pupil ratio to 1:17;
Reduced swimming provision, saving 560,000
Reduction of wrap-around care saving 180,000
Free school milk will only be given to those who receive free school meals saving 123,000, and charge those who do pay over-inflation prices as there will be a reduction in uptake as a consequence;
Take away free fruit and bread, saving 210,000
Staff reduction through less support to head teachers, saving 350,000
Five per cent reduction in school maintenance 120,000
Officers have been planning for an estimated budget shortfall of 45 million by 2014, but that looks set to rise to 60m, with 8.232m of that coming out of the education budget – the largest cut in any council department due to it being the council's biggest outflow of cash.
More than half of the planned cuts – 4.177m – will kick in next year.
It's unclear at this time how many staff will be affected by cuts.
Members of the PDSP were also asked to consider a rise in teaching time for promoted staff in primary schools, for core service delivery.
Teachers' union EIS did not respond to the Herald & Post for comment, but a statement from the West Lothian branch of the Joint Trade Union Committee said: "Senior managers and elected members must make it clear to the public that less money in the budget means fewer staff delivering fewer services to fewer people."
Executive councillor for education Andrew Miller, who chaired the PDSP meetings, said: "I would like to thank everyone involved in the two meetings. I think that they were very positive.
"They quite rightly examined in detail additional support needs and being reassured that no reductions are proposed in this area. I would also like to thank everyone who submitted ideas."
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Tuesday 07 February 2012
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