Bristol’s Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (Send) budget, was further protected for a year last night, after \u00a32.7M in funding was allocated during a full council meeting.<\/p>\n
A \u00a32M will come from a different part of the schools budget. An additional \u00a3700,000 will come from the general fund which has been given special permission from the Secretary of State and can only be done once.<\/p>\n
Additionally,\u00a0Cabinet Member for Education and Skills, Anna Keen, promised to ‘reset’ the High Needs Block Budget and make no further savings against it in the next financial year.<\/p>\n
She also confirmed that Bristol City Council would not be appealing the results of the Judicial Review that took place in July. This was despite\u00a0Councillor Craig Cheney, Deputy Mayor with responsibility for Finance stating at the time that they were ‘disappointed’ by the court’s decision.<\/p>\n
The Send Motion was proposed by\u00a0Liberal Democrat councillor for Hengrove and Whitchurch Park, Tim Kent.<\/p>\n
He had said in his Send motion that Bristol is ‘failing’ in its legal duty towards Send children and that outcomes for the children concerned were ‘poor’.<\/p>\n
This was backed up by a series of parents making public statements to council, highlighting how the council had failed children in the city through EHC needs assessments, plans and budget cuts.<\/p>\n
There was concern in the public gallery as the meeting threatened to spill past the deadline, which could have seen the motion moved to a future meeting.<\/p>\n
Cllr Tony Carey in response to unrest shouted “who asked you,” before standing up to apologise.<\/p>\n