'Axing overnight stays at specialist schools illogical'

A decision by a council to stop funding overnight residential stays at specialist schools in Cheshire has been described as "heartbreaking and illogical" by parents.

Cheshire West and Chester Council said it would stop funding residential provision at three schools, where young people have been able stay overnight to learn household and life skills.

Jennifer said staying at the school once a week had been "life-changing" for her autistic son George, and there was "no way we're just going to let it disappear with a simple letter to a head teacher".

The Cheshire authority said the service was valued by those who used it, but the way schools had used funding had led to "unequal access" to young people more widely.

The schools losing the provision are Greenbank School and Cloughwood Academy, both in Hartford, and Archers Brook in Great Sutton near Ellesmere Port.

Jennifer's 17-year-old son George, who stayed over one night a week at his school for two years when he was 15 and 16, learned independent skills such as how to make a cup of tea, basic meal preparation and how to make a bed.

"Even small things like putting on his shoes and dressing, which for children with learning difficulties is quite challenging, but it massively increases independence," she said.

Jennifer, who is leading the parents' campaign, has started a petition to the council, saying the service had been "exceptional" at "building independent skills for autistic teenagers in our community" and losing it was "really upsetting for them".

"It's just heartbreaking and illogical for us that anyone would want to axe that, and the idea that it is saving money we just cannot understand," she said.

"These children will still have the same needs. They'll need to be met in different ways.

"We can't see that it's going to really have any financial gains or gains for the children concerned."

She said more than 100 children had commented, and it was "really the sense that it is a real place of social network for them and at the same time having really fun experiences with specialist staff that taught them a lot of skills".

Andrew Cooper, Labour MP for Mid-Cheshire, has also called on the council to "reconsider" the decision, saying he felt the stays were a "reasonable use of education funding".

Cooper said he understood the challenges local authorities were facing and why it had made the decision, but it should "look at the value" of the service.

"There's an 'invest to save' here, because you can either teach these children independent living skills when they're children or you can pick it up through adult social care," he said.

"But one way or another, they need to learn how to live independently."

Cheshire West and Chester Council said it understood the concerns of the families, but the decision related to how funding for schools had been used, along with updated guidance from the Department for Education.

"Over time, the way the funding has been used has moved away from the original purpose and eligibility conditions that were agreed when the grant was first awarded," it said.

"The original conditions of the grant included extending the offer to all eligible children across the borough to access via the schools who received the grant.

"While the residential support delivered at the schools has been of good quality and valued by those who accessed it, the way the schools have used the funding available model has unfortunately resulted in unequal access to extended day support for children and young people more widely."

The BBC has contacted the government for a response.

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