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Upfront

No confidence in SEN changes

A recent NUT survey of Sencos found that cuts to education budgets have already had a severe impact on provision for pupils with special needs.

Almost three-quarters said that over the last two years the amount of external support to their school for pupils with SEN has decreased. Over two-thirds predicted that it will decrease further from January 2012 onwards.

Special educational needs coordinators (Sencos) were anxious about the closure of central services and redundancies of SEN experts. Although the Government claims that giving schools freedom will enable them to purchase or commission the right support, this is not borne out by what is happening in practice, with 39 per cent of respondents saying that support in their school has decreased over the past two years.

Many were pessimistic about the future: most worried about funding, about growing pressures on schools and government proposals that undermined their status as professionals. Only 13 per cent were in favour of proposals to give parents personal budgets, and only 8 per cent thought it a good idea to give voluntary and community groups a role in coordinating statements. It is unclear how this will work in practice.

The Government must recognise the impact on children with SEN of the academies programme, the cuts in local authority specialist services, and the radically reduced budgets within education services.

For the full survey results and NUT policy visit www.teachers.org.uk/node/15595.

Young teachers get together

More than 120 members were at the annual NUT young teachers’ conference at Stoke Rochford Hall in February. The theme of the weekend event was ‘Supporting teachers, reclaiming education’. Speakers were NUT General Secretary Christine Blower, who gave an update on the pensions campaign, and Councillor Peter Downes, former president of the Association of School and College Leaders, who spoke about the changing education landscape.

A variety of workshops included managing workload, positive teaching methods and building networks. There was plenty of fun too, with a quiz night and party with a DJ and karaoke.

• To get involved visit www. teachers.org.uk/getinvolved.

NUT women’s voices at TUC

A 21-strong NUT delegation attended this year’s TUC women’s conference, including then President Nina Franklin and Senior Vice-President Marilyn Harrop, and Executive member Max Hyde. The theme was ‘Every woman in every workplace: stronger together’.

Speakers included Brendan Barber, General Secretary, TUC, Kate Green MP and Claudia Menne, Confederal Secretary, ETUC. There were panel discussions including exploring the impact of cuts, welfare reform, changes to employment tribunals and attacks on rights protecting women’s safety.