AIBU to think it is unreasonable for the council to close down the only point of contact for troubled children.

[CCMcGarry]

Do me a favour people of mums.net, let me steal 2 minutes of your Saturday..

A friend of mine whose wife works at a school for troubled kids who have fallen through the cracks of mainstream schooling, these kids come from some utterly horrific backgrounds, most have been expelled from every other school in the area and this is last chance saloon before they fall off the radar completely. There used to be three facilities, they were condensed into one a couple of years back, now the council want to close that too leaving the kids high and dry. is this not an unreasonable act by a council looking to cut needed services?

They’ve taken legal advise and have been informed that surprisingly an online petition can have a real impact on local councils so have set up the following, it’s just a name and an email address, no sign up etc

www.change.org/p/solihull-metropolitan-borough-council-keep-summerfield-education-centre-open?utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=custom_url&recruited_by_id=03f7c3c0-6511-11ea-b63d-b794bf635422

The two women who run the gaff have vowed to seek funding elsewhere if the council do pull the plug, they dedicate their lives to improving the lives of these kids, hopefully getting the numbers up on here may help in some small way.

Thanks for your input.

So what do the council propose to do with these children?

We live in a neighbouring authority and theres already pressure on those sorts of placements here and I would imagine it's a similar position in many LEAs.

I have heard of this school and sadly IIRC their last Ofsted was inadequate which wont be helping their position though quite frankly I am not sure Ofsted are the right people to assess these kinds of unit as they are by their very nature substantially different from the mainstream.

@listsandbudgets

So what do the council propose to do with these children?

We live in a neighbouring authority and theres already pressure on those sorts of placements here and I would imagine it's a similar position in many LEAs.

I have heard of this school and sadly IIRC their last Ofsted was inadequate which wont be helping their position though quite frankly I am not sure Ofsted are the right people to assess these kinds of unit as they are by their very nature substantially different from the mainstream.

I think the common strategy in these cases is push the kids back through mainstream education or just cut them adrift, which is so sad.