Children with disabilities and learning difficulties are going to lose out on therapies, programmes and extra help due to education budget cuts, a special school principal has warned.
The Department of Education announced on March 30 that two funding streams – Engage and Healthy Happy Minds – would be cut after March 31.
Caroline Clements, principal of Rossmar School in Limavady, Co Derry, said she has now been forced to inform some staff members they “won’t be back after Easter ” because there is no longer money available to pay them.
Read more: School children protest outside Northern Ireland Office over education funding cuts
Speaking to Belfast Live, Ms Clements described the disparity in overall per-pupil funding between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK as a “disgrace”.
The Controlled Schools Support Council, which oversees the work of most special schools, released figures last week that showed an "underinvestment" of £18,000 per pupil per year in Northern Ireland when compared with Scotland.
And last week, on March 30, the Department of Education wrote to school leaders to announce funding cuts.
Holiday payments for parents in receipt of free school meals was cut, along with the Engage and Healthy Happy Minds programmes.
Ms Clements said the loss of those two funding streams would have a direct impact on the pupils at her school - some of whom have multiple and profound disabilities and learning difficulties.
"On Thursday at 11.43 I received an email from the Department to say that the Engage funding was cut," she said. "When I got home that evening I discovered on the news that the Healthy Happy Minds funding was gone."
She continued: "The people that are being affected the most are the pupils. This isn’t funding that is just for special schools, it was for all schools.
"I was able to bring in initiatives and programmes because of it.
"We were able to spend it directly on the pupils because our main budget has to pay for everything – so out of it comes our energy costs, if we have to organise buses, and everything else. Once the energy costs are paid there is very little left, but through this funding I was able to spend every single penny directly on the pupils.
"If there was a pupil who was maybe finding it difficult, through behaviours, to be in a classroom environment I was able to bring in additional classroom assistant hours where that pupil was on a bespoke, individual timetable where they could go into the rebound room, or into the sensory room, and then go back into the classroom. Whereas now, that child would have to be in a classroom all the time because I don’t have the funding to take them out."
She said the Healthy Happy Minds programme allowed the school to introduce a music programme which was useful for pupils who "often find it very hard to open up to somebody – especially if they are non-verbal."
She added: "So I found out at 11.43am on Thursday the 30th of March that this funding was stopping on the 31st of March, the Friday. That means that for April, May and June I am trying to see now what money I can source to keep these programmes going. We do have classroom assistants that we have had to say that they won’t be back after Easter.
"It means the children are not going to have all the experiences any more. I have a budget and the majority of it is going on electric and gas. Northern Ireland has the worst allocation [in the UK] per child. All my costs are going on energy, photocopying, examination costs, resources for the classroom and it means I am able to bring in very little in terms of outside provision. I don’t know what I’m going to do now.
"There are figures showing how much is spent in England, Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland is the worst. It is an absolute disgrace."
On the Healthy Happy Minds programme, which was introduced following the coronavirus pandemic, the Department of Education has said it is "very aware" of the continuing impacts of the pandemic on our children and the positive impact that the Healthy Happy Minds has had on pupils across all educational settings.
They added that they will now take the opportunity, with the conclusion of the pilot, to fully consider the findings of the evaluation and develop proposals for primary counselling and therapy provision in the context of the Children and Young People’s Emotional Health and Wellbeing Framework.
On the Engage programme, which was funded out of additional Covid-19 funding initially before a number of Ministerial Directions subsequently allowed for the extension of the programme until March 31, 2023, the Department said that the level of funding that is required to enable the programme to continue would impair the Department’s ability to control and manage its expenditure within budget.
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