In a rethink of its policy on funding allocation in the expansion of the academies programme, the Department for Education (DfE) has announced that, for the next year, local authorities (LAs) will not now lose money for specialist support services when academies break away from local authority control.
The move comes after sustained pressure from a number of pressure groups for the Government to ensure that funding arrangements are in place to safeguard specialist support for children with conditions such as visual and hearing impairment.
Prominent in the campaign, the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) has welcomed the news of this interim measure. “It is vital that deaf children have a fair chance to achieve, no matter which school they go to”, says Brian Gale of the NDCS. “We are now looking for a long term solution from the Government…to ensure that specialist support services for deaf children are secured for the future”.