10:10pm Monday 8th February 2010
By David Paine
A REVIEW into services for Worcestershire children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) will take longer than expected, raising fears a whole generation of youngsters are being written off.
Dr Richard Harling, director of public health, said the current system is complex and organised in a way that is “haphazard” and “a little bit random, and not as well managed as it ought to be”.
As a result he said it would be April 2011 by the time any changes – which could see the controversial redistribution of service provision from the north in the county, where it has historically received more funding and allegedly provides a better service, to the south – come into effect.
Under the new joint commissioning set-up between Worcestershire County Council and Worcestershire Primary Care Trust, the service, which has a basic budget of £1.5 million, is immune to cuts despite both organisations looking to make multi-million pound savings in anticipation of national public service cuts.
We previously reported how more than 1,000 youngsters in Worcestershire’s state schools have special educational needs, but it is believed the review could find more.
At a meeting of the county’s children and young people overview and scrutiny panel, Councillor Penelope Morgan said schools are already desperate for more assistance and called on Dr Harling to speed up the review process.
“This is affecting children’s lives, affecting their education and whole futures,” she said. “We seem to be writing off a whole generation of children and nobody seems to care about it.”
Councillor Liz Eyre, cabinet member with responsibility for children and young people (12-19 years), said it was frustrating but neither the council nor the PCT had previously been in a position to sort the system out until now.
Dr Harling said a small volume of additional support had been made available to some schools but it was impossible to hurry the review process along because the service is so complex.
“If we were in a different financial climate we might be putting interim resources in to prop it up until we reconfigure it but that’s simply not where we are with the economic challenges facing this country and this county,” he said.
“We will come up with the best possible solution but that will take some time.”
Dr Harling told the panel he hoped the review would result in a more efficient, rules-based service to give better structure to the way children with SLCN are catered for but concerns were once again raised about the redistribution of services, especially if it meant those used to a certain level of service were to suddenly have it reduced.
Your Worcester News was the only member of the media to attend this meeting.
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