Examination of Witnesses (Questions 180-184)
TUESDAY 1 APRIL 2003
MRS CHERYLE
BERRY, CLLR
MRS SAXON
SPENCE AND
CLLR MR
DON RULE
180. You touched earlier in your evidence on
the subject of special needs but both with children with special
needs who might have a statement and indeed children who have
severe learning difficulties, both of those categories of children
are resource intensive if you are going to a) fulfil the demands
of the statement and b) provide the specialist training they need
if they have severe learning difficulties. What are the policies
employed in rural schools to deal with those two situations?
(Cllr Spence) I think it is fair to say it is one
of my responsibilities in a rural county for individual needs,
we believe in inclusion, and children often are very happily included
in a small school and the difficulties then arise when they have
to go to one of our large secondary community colleges. We do
obviously try to give support with our support teams on hearing
disability and visual disability but we are just closing some
of our assessment classes where people have been travelling into
six centres because we do not feel that is the best use of money.
That is a real conundrum because you either have to have centres
where you bring children in or you try and support them within
their school. We have got some real problems and nobody would
pretend we have got all the answers. Behavioural difficulties
and autism is a growing problem and because children are isolated
you have not got the numbers to easily give the support so, yes,
there are some real problems but, for instance, we have got a
wonderful partnership with Vranch House which deals particularly
with cerebral palsy and they do all the assessments for physical
disability in our county.
181. What organisation?
(Cllr Spence) Vranch House. It is a primary school.
When I was there the other day there were eight children having
intensive physiotherapy coming to this school for two days and
going to their school in Bideford or Tavistock etc. for the other
three days. We need to develop more work like that. It is a problem
because you are tending to have to move children long distances
to meet their needs. I have no magic answers to that one.
Chairman
182.You made various suggestions to us about
the role that Defra could play in assisting rural education delivery.
I wonder if you have got any views about the Countryside Agency
and do you have any examples of any involvement that the Countryside
Agency has had in assisting the delivery of education in rural
areas. You might look at me and say no but—
(Cllr Rule) We have had one example.
They have been quite heavily involved in our programme of trying
to find safe routes to schools. They have become quite heavily
involved in that because it has involved footpaths and all the
rest of the things that they seem to be terribly interested in.
That is the only area I can think of. They have been interested
in a lot of other council work but in education that is the only
one.
(Mrs Berry) Ours was working with the Rural Academy,
not just funding the infrastructure but coming to some of the
steering group meetings. We want to progress that on and they
are helping us into the future, I believe, with some curriculum
development so there is some exploration of the role.
183. Do you believe that it should have a role?
Should it be bigger than the role it has presently?
(Mrs Berry) I thinks a number of agencies, including
the Countryside Agency, could get a lot more involved in curriculum
development, progression routes through, raising aspirations,
as we said. We need to harness expertise and acknowledge that
expertise within those bodies.
(Cllr Rule) Assessing skills needs as well.
(Cllr Spence) We are proliferating partnerships at
the moment. We have a meeting tomorrow of our children and young
people's partnership. I do think if we could look at Learning
Partnerships, we have got our Local Strategic Partnerships, we
have got the Children's Fund Partnership, there are so many initiatives
and yet nobody has said anything about early years. I have to
say that one of the biggest, most wonderful developments is that
by this April in my county we are going to be able to meet the
commitment to five half days of nursery education for three-year-olds.
That is a real challenge in the rural areas. If Defra is looking
at engaging parents in employment, in training, getting the childcare
in the early years is extraordinarily important and it would be
good to see them supporting it because it is quite taxing, I think,
in every sense of the word, to meet those needs, but it does again
give the village schools wonderful opportunities for the Extended
School initiative, and again Defra might like to be having some
input and ideas as to how our local schools can develop their
role in the community, and childcare and early years is one of
them.
(Cllr Rule) I would add Sure Start into that.
(Cllr Spence) Sure Start is brilliant and we have
got good rural Sure Starts.
Mr Mitchell
184. Just one question because I have been made
to feel like an urban sophisticate amongst rural bumpkins particularly
because the Chairman has whispered a suggestion that I should
stick to fishing. You emphasise the advantages of collaboration
between clusters. Ideally should that not extend across local
authority boundaries because they are very artificial, particularly
where they separate urban areas from rural areas where they can
be mutual beneficiaries?
(Mrs Berry) That is desperately important and in many
ways we are already linked. We have consortia for broadband in
most of the large tranches of LEAs. We also have an affinity with
each other so we find across borders we try to share good practice
and developments. The LGA has been enormously helpful with commitments,
as we say in our submission, to sharing on the priorities, sharing
on practical solutions. I think the sharing has been extremely
good over the years.
(Cllr Rule) In Herefordshire we have to do that with
another country!
(Cllr Spence) The LGA would be extremely happy to
develop some of these ideas with Defra because we do represent
all types of authorities, and so I hope we can maintain that.
Chairman: Thank you very much, it has been most
interesting. If you have got anything that later you think maybe
we would like to know about, please send that to us and we would
be very happy to have it.
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