National charity launches legal action over cuts to support for deaf children
Stoke-on-Trent City Council is facing legal action from a national charity over cuts to the educational support given to deaf children.
The local authority has halved the number of specialist visiting Teachers of the Deaf, according to the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS). These teachers provide “invaluable support and advice”, it said.
“If the council proceeds with its plans, there will be just three visiting Teachers of the Deaf left to support the city’s more than 200 deaf children, as one further visiting Teacher of the Deaf is set to be ‘displaced’ from her role in the next few weeks,” the charity also warned.
It added: “With such drastically reduced support, the council is risking deaf children starting school without the communication skills they need to learn and those already at school falling behind in class.”
According to NDCS, there were also significant concerns that Stoke was set to limit the deaf children it would help and withdraw support from pre-school children – “fears that the council has so far done little to allay”.
NDCS is bringing the challenge on a number of grounds, including that the local authority failed to properly assess the impacts the cuts would have on deaf children and that bringing in the changes risked putting deaf children at an even greater disadvantage.
It is the first time the charity has brought a legal action against a local authority in response to recent cutbacks.
Calling on Stoke to reverse its decision, NDCS Deputy Director of Campaigns Jo Campion said: “The council has been utterly reckless in its decision to cut support that deaf children in Stoke-on-Trent need to achieve at school. They have rushed these cuts through with no regard for the impact on the future of these deaf children and have left parents to rely on rumour to find out what exactly has been going on.
“The council has refused to reconsider its actions and so we have now been forced to take legal action. We want the council to be in no doubt that we will do everything in our power to protect these children.”
Suzanne Pitchford, mum of seven year old Sam, who is deaf, said: “The council is just not listening, so this is the only way forward now. Sam isn’t getting any support at school at all because of the cuts. They are not taking the needs of deaf children to heart and by taking away this support they are jeopardizing our children’s futures.”
City law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is advising NDCS on a pro bono basis.
A spokesman for Stoke said: "In light of impending legal action from the National Deaf Children's Society, it would be inappropriate for the city council to comment further at this stage."
Philip Hoult
