Meeting the special needs of special people . . .

EVERY parent wants the best chances in life for their children by making sure they get the right education.

But, the needs of children with learning difficulties or disabilities can be different from the majority of children.

For this reason, their schooling is termed as special needs education the area of Swindon Council's provision that Government inspectors heavily criticised in 2001.

A private company called Tribal was brought in to turn around the performance of the local education authority.

Tribal outlined an action plan, which aimed to deliver the best possible teaching as well as keeping parents informed of what could be done for their children.

At that time there was no mention of closing ten educational units for children with special needs.

But now Swindon Council, after a public consultation, has decided to close units at nine primary and infant schools, which cater for children with moderate learning difficulties.

The closures will affect Ruskin Junior School, Pinehurst Infant and Junior Schools, Moredon Junior School, Penhill Primary School, Goddard Park Primary School, Toothill Primary School, and the Oaktree Nursery and Primary Schools.

The dyslexia unit at Wroughton Junior has so far escaped closure and an independent adjudicator will decide its fate.

The £1m saved from the closures, as well as other cuts will be distributed among all 66 primary and infants' schools in Swindon.

Currently, children with moderate learning difficulties may have to travel to schools outside their catchment areas to attend the special units.

Under the new scheme, children should be able to attend their local primary school because the special needs cash would be distributed equally.

The authority is backed by the National Union of Teachers and, it claims, 80 per cent of the schools. But some parents and headteachers are concerned the closures could have an adverse impact on the teaching of children with special educational needs.

Ruskin Junior School is one of the schools which will have its units closed, over a period of two years.

Headteacher Creighton Muir-head estimates the closure will mean a loss of £21,000 for the school

"I am disappointed. It's a loss of focus, I feel," he said.

"I understand the thought pro-cess behind re-distributing money to all the schools.

"But there is a danger, as has happened with other lumps of money, that once it goes into general school budgets, there is no guarantee it will go towards special needs education.

"We will do our best to provide the high quality of teaching but over time there will be less money."

He thinks either the amount of support given to children with special needs will be reduced or other areas of school life will be affected.

But Swindon Council says the changes will take funding to the children who need it and cut out bureaucracy.

Geoff Hogg, assistant director of services to pupils at Swindon Council, said: "One of the issues Swindon has is the quite antiquated system of having units across the borough dealing with children who have particular difficulties.

"There isn't a good criteria for selecting children that attend these units, the schools make the decision.

"Some schools got £3,500 per pupil in such a unit. It was a good deal and in the school's interest to fill the spaces.

"But children with moderate learning difficulties will be in every school so the money will be shared out to all the schools based on need."

Mr Hogg said that children with more severe learning difficulties would not be affected by the closure.

"Some children need very special education.

"But there are quite a lot of places in special schools for children with profound difficulties to attend, especially for a place the size of Swindon."

Mr Hogg says the overall provision of special needs education has vastly improved. Another Ofsted was carried out in the summer 2003.

"The overall strategy is now deemed satisfactory.

"We are meeting our statutory obligations such as completing assessments of children within a given deadline."

Coun Garry Perkins, lead member for education, said many mainstream schools will retain expertise in particular special educational needs. We hope to build on the existing expertise in some mainstream schools and special schools.

"Some pupils benefit from integration into mainstream schools and some don't. This can only be assessed on each individual case, which is the way it is done in Swindon."

Eldene Primary School caters for children with severe and complex learning difficulties, Mountford Manor for children who have a hearing impairment, Commonweal School caters for children with physical disabilities and Freshbrook and Ruskin teaches children on the autistic spectrum.

And a learning centre for secondary children with severe learning difficulties such as autism, is also being planned at Kingsdown School. Costing £1.6m the centre would take children from across the borough but plans have yet to be finalised.

Bhavani Vadde