Bristol special needs education given £1.3m of schools fund

A council is reallocating £1.3m of schools funding to tackle failures in its support for vulnerable children.

In November, Bristol City Council was found to have failed to plan for Special Education Needs and Disability (SEND) children.

A month later an Ofsted/Care Quality Commission (CQC) report said the city's performance was "disturbingly poor".

Jen Smith, from Bristol Independent SEND Community, said she was concerned the "funding will not be enough".

December's Ofsted/CQC report was particularly damning of the city council, saying inspectors had found "significant leadership weakness" in Bristol's SEND system.

In response to the findings, the authority proposed spending £1.3m of government funding for Bristol's mainstream schools on SEND services.

Last week, school leaders unanimously approved the funding transfer.

Alison Hurley, the council's education director, told the Bristol Schools Forum that it would be spent on three "priority areas".

The plan aims to ensure children get the right support at the right time, can move successfully into training and employment and that parents and carers have a "positive experience" of the SEND system.

Along with an effective "front door" service for parents and carers, it would also include a free training programme for school staff, more specialist staff at special and mainstream schools and a system to improve attendance and reduce suspensions among children with SEND.

She added that £1.7m of council tax payers' money would also be spent on making schools more inclusive.

Ms Smith, who has two autistic children, said it was "good to see strategic direction at last".

"It is a concern that this funding will not be enough to ensure this ambitious plan is successful," she said."We are yet to see solid plans about how co-production with parent carers will improve or how all leaders, including school leaders, will be held accountable where failings are to be found."