New TUC report finds that disabled education workers and students are suffering under austerity measures
The report, Disabled Workers and Students in Education, says that Government reforms and austerity measures are endangering the education of young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and have reversed progress being made towards an educational system that welcomes and respects disabled staff.
The study identifies a number of key reasons for the decline in progress in the area of SEND:
- Discrimination against disabled staff members (77 per cent of disabled NASUWT members reported facing discrimination).
- Increasing workloads leading to rising stress levels among staff (surveys suggest that 60-hour weeks are common).
- Local authority funding cuts leading to reduced SEND services (local authority funding dropped by more than 40 per cent between 2010 and 2015).
- Regular changes to the curriculum (71 per cent of NUT members believe the curriculum does not meet the needs of pupils with SEND).
- Abolition of the Educational Maintenance Allowance in 2011 (pupils with SEND were more likely to be eligible for this post-16 education funding).
For more information and to download the report go to https://www.tuc.org.uk/node/122528