As news comes through of the latest cuts to special schools across Staffordshire, we hear from Labour District Councillor Darren Price.
Please support Darren in responding to these vicious and unnecessary cuts.
Darren writes below –
The cutting of funding for residential care at five special schools across Staffordshire is utterly appalling and we will fight this latest cut from Staffordshire County Council with every ounce of strength we have.
First up, I’m writing to the leader of the county council asking them to reconsider these dreadful cuts and suggest that you do too (details below).
For me this is personal, as I know one of the five schools, Horton Lodge in Rudyard, well as we took our daughter Martha there as a (strictly non-toddling) toddler. At their brilliant ‘School for Parents’ they helped her develop large and fine motor skills and finally helped her to start walking at two and a half. It is a fantastic school and the residential provision is a key part of what they do, helping with those vital independence skills that are so important.
“Austerity is over” said Sajid Javid recently, but not here in Staffordshire it isn’t. It certainly isn’t over for the disabled children and their families who will miss these services terribly. Here it seems that those still paying the price for the bankers greed are our children as the County Council desperately try to close their own deficit by cutting services that help the most vulnerable. It simply isn’t good enough.
Tell the county council what you think about these cuts:
Cllr Philip Atkins
Leader of the Council
Cabinet Office
Wedgwood Building
Tipping Street
Stafford
St16 2DH
Email: philip.atkins@staffordshire.gov.uk
** You can read Darren’s letter here