residential colleges...soon there won't be any

[davidsotherhalf]

i have a dd in residential college. i was wondering if the mums here are aware of problems the colleges are facing? some youngsters with sn cannot have there needs met in ms college, so they get turned down for a place, next step is a residential college that can meet the needs of these youngsters, did you know that all funding for these placements have been cut by 99%...dd college's normal intake for september is 40 boarders and 10 that go home at the end of the day......this sept the intake from all over the country is 1 placement none boarder......these youngsters need our help.... without these placements the youngsters are being left out in the cold with no help... the colleges do a fantastic job getting youngsters into work placements, independant living skills are taught......please can you write to your local mp? and make them aware of whats happening? if we don't save these colleges now then they will close.......if you want to see what other things these colleges offer please see the video footage on linkage college........tia

forgot to say i think there is also a petition to sign on linkage college website, please sign it and help save all these sn colleges

DS went to a specialist residential FE College. It was the only provision he could access. There was nothing for him locally.

I guessed this would happen when they took away funding from the L&SC a few years ago and handed it to the LAs - who refuse to spend money on specialist provision.

It's absolutely depressing. If people had been there at my son's college graduation day and seen 'hopeless cases' collecting their qualifications and standing on a stage in front of hundreds of people to tell them what they planned to do next in their lives they would be ashamed that this lifeline was being taken away.

Don't be disabled in the UK - the little support there was is rapidly disaapearing

is it this one? Will have a good read. There'll be nothing left by the time dd3(6) is old enough for that kind of provision.

thanks ninja thats the one ....wasn't sure how to do the links,......i just hope that lots of ppl sign this.......without our help these youngsters will end up with no help and support to make the most of there lives..

I guess the families that use them will struggle through and the parents of children later down the line are struggling so much with their current battle they haven't the capacity to look to the future.

Easy target!

Have signed.

Bump.

I have signed too

I can't see MPs intervening on justice or humanitarian grounds. But the vast social care cost of not providing these placements might be worth looking at. I wonder if a proper equalities impact assessment was done when the funding was transferred?

If the ADL/therapies bit of residential college was a health intervention, NICE would probably find it to be good value; sadly when an effective but complex and multifaceted intervention exists, then SS, NHS and education all protect their own silo of cash.

For comparison, a place in a young offenders institution costs about £50,000 per year and the average cost of a publically funded long term residential care placement is £1700 per week (range £600-£9137)

I've signed.

I hope everyone on this board also signs.

We all complain about schools but it's post 16 that's difficult too.

They usually get sent to local FE Colleges that can't support their needs and they no longer have their Statements to ensure they do get help.

The LAs usually try to shirk responsibility saying they have no statutory duty to fund post-16 education as that is beyond the age of statutory education.

The Learning & Skills Council used to fill that gap by funding these colleges, until that organsiation was disbanded. Funding was then handed back to LAs.

DS's LA washed their hands of him at age 16, even though he had a Statement. They certainly wouldn't have coughed up the £240,000 it cost to keep him at spceialist FE College for 3 years - to repair the damage they caused him in the first place through educational negligence. VERY

wet are you in my area for education?.... my dd was neglected by education...this is why they funded residential college.....would of cost them a lot more if i took them to court for failure to provide education....was told dd wasn't entitled to an education, wouldn't offer a school etc.

Signed and tweeted :)

DavidOH

No. I'm quite a bit south of you. Just like your LA they wouldn't offer a school he could attend. I did take them to court and they did have to pay him handsomely for their educational negligence.

Bastards (still makes me vvvv angry)

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I've signed. Ds will ened specialist post 16 provision in Sept 2013. This is really scary news.

i e-mailed all the daily newspapers but not had any replies....don't think they care about sn youngsters.......wish we could clog there e-mail up with this, they might get the message then

done - thanks for highlighting this.

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Signed. This is exactly the sort of service ds1 may need in the future. The place I had hoped he would go at 18 has already shut

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