PUPILS and staff at Lichfield’s Saxon Hill Academy, which educates children with complex needs and physical disabilities, are pleading with Staffordshire County Council to reverse a decision to cut funding to its “vital” sleepover club.
The facility provides accommodation for children aged 5 to 18 on the Saxon Hill site on Kings Hill Road, giving pupils the chance to socialise, learn new skills and affording their families a much-needed break.
Staffordshire County Council commissions Saxon Hill to provide the sleepover club, a non-statutory service, but in its drive to save money has decided to pull £100,000 of funding from April.
This will see the number of bed places cut from 44 to 31 throughout the week. The maximum number of children the sleepover club currently accomodates in any one evening is 13.
Academy principal Melsa Buxton told the Mercury: “We understand the county council has to cut costs, but we think the sleepover club is too valuable a resource to cut.
“Our children are vulnerable, fragile and parents need the reassurance which our trained staff arrived.
“The children need specialist feeding, medication, personal and intimate care which other places can’t provide safely.”
Mrs Buxton explained that there are just 5 residential schools in the Staffordshire and Saxon Hill is the only one which cares for children with complex medical needs of secondary age. Children attend from across the south of the county from up to an hour’s travelling distance away.
“It is residential/educational facility but parents see it as respite,” said Mrs Buxton.
“The sleepover club gives parents the opportunity to spend time with their other children and also to sleep.
“Often children with special needs don’t sleep through the night or need medication.
“Parents have said sleepover club gives them one night of rest per week which they really need.”
The facility also helps youngsters learn important lifeskills such as cooking, personal hygeine, communication to promote their independence and gives them the chance to socialise,
“Funding has been cut in lots of areas including youth provision,” said Mrs Buxton.
“These young people don’t have access to social clubs.”
A former pupil Shaun Waters has launched an online petition against the county council’s decision which has gained more than 500 signatures and parents have spoken of the sleepover club’s importance.
One said: “Our children face a daily struggle in life, which impacts the whole family and not just the children themselves.
“It’s taken us a while to pluck up the courage for our daughter to access the sleepover club at Saxon Hill.
“However she has settled in so well and always seems to enjoy it, comes home in a very happy, loving mood - we now wish we had done it sooner.
“We cannot believe that just 6 months after her place allocation, we receive news of cutbacks.”
Another parent said: “We hate to use the word ‘normal’ but ‘normal’ children regularly meet with their own friends after school, have playdates and sleepovers but for our children something relatively simple is far from easy to achieve.
“Where else can provide a safe environment for the children to be cared for by trained staff who know and understand their needs and have the equipment and resources to do so?
“Sleepover Club gives our children the opportunity to explore so many different and new invaluable experiences in life that we are unable, for many different reasons, to give them at home.
“We are so very disappointed that such a fantastic sleepover provision is being reduced and strongly reinforce that there is a genuine need for it to continue without further cutbacks.”
Mrs Buxton pointed to the fact that, due to the cuts, Saxon Hill will have thousands of pounds worth of specialist equipment, beds and hoists, lying redundant.
A spokesman for the The Shaw Education Trust, of which Saxon Hill is an academy, said: “We are aware of the financial constraints local authorities are facing and the devastating effects these proposed cuts will have on our residential provision and on some of our families.
“As a trust we are keen to work closely with Staffordshire County Council to ensure that we continue to do the best by our young people, and will strive to support the families affected to ensure minimal disruption is experienced.”
Last November Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission inspected the county council’s Special Educational Needs and Disabilities provision.
One of its main findings was that children and young people with SEND in Staffordshire “do not achieve well and are often ill prepared for the next stages of their education, employment and training”.
“Ineffective leadership has resulted in a fragmented and dysfunctional approach to education, health and care agencies working together,” says the report.
“This means that families do not get the help and support they need for their child.
“Inspectors were told that there is a sense of ‘diminishing inclusivity’ in Staffordshire and that children and young people are often not placed in the right educational establishment.”
Last month Staffordshire County Council pledged to bring partners and families together to improve services for children with special needs following the review.
Mark Sutton, Staffordshire County Council’s Cabinet member for Children and Young People, said last month: “We are aware some areas need improving and we are clear that we must do more with our partners to ensure families receive the right support at the right time.
“In the last five years the number of children with a special educational need or disability in Staffordshire has increased by a third to more than 15,800, but government funding has not kept pace.
“We have done a great deal, and the report identifies some strong pilot schemes, but there is no doubt that we have struggled to cope with this large increase.
“However, the report clearly identifies where we need to focus and we are committed to working with health services, schools and parents themselves to do better.”
Regarding Saxon Hill Sleepover Club Councillor Sutton said yesterday: “The residential education contract with Saxon Hill for children to stay overnight runs out at the end of March and has been renewed for another 12 months until April 2020, despite the huge financial pressures on the council.
“This isn’t a statutory service, but we have still invested around £300,000 in providing it over and above each child’s Education, Health and Care Plan, which they continue to receive in full.
“We’re currently in talks with the academy to see how the funding for 2019/20 can best be used to benefit children and parents will be kept informed.”
