Title:
RNIB survey on changes to VI service staffing and provision for blind and partially sighted children and young people in Scotland.
Authors:
Sue Keil and Mary Dallas
Publisher:
RNIB (unpublished research report)
Year of publication:
2011
Background:
In September 2010 RNIB Children, Young People and Families undertook a questionnaire survey of local authority (LA) advisory services for children and young people with visual impairment (VI) in England and Wales (Keil and Cobb, 2010). The aim of the survey was to find out the number of VI services that were under threat of staff cuts and/or re-organisation that would put the educational support for blind and partially pupils at risk. These threats to service provision were taking place in the context of a major national financial deficit and the newly elected coalition government undertaking a Comprehensive Spending Review. The results of the review, released on 20 October 2010, would have significant implications for the future of public services in the UK.
In Scotland, the context is a little different. Education funding is a devolved issue, however Scotland's overall funding level, set by Westminster, is also likely to face cuts. The majority of education spending in Scotland is part of the local government settlement which is held by local authorities who are seeing a cut of just 2.6 per cent in their budget. With the aim of finding out what effect these cuts are having on VI services in Scotland, in December 2010 RNIB undertook a second questionnaire survey of all VI services in Scotland.
A total of 14 completed questionnaires were returned giving a response rate of 44 per cent.
Key findings:
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The information received from the 14 services suggests that so far the public sector cuts have had less impact on VI services in Scotland than in England and Wales although we cannot be certain that our findings can be generalised across the whole of Scotland.
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Although the majority of services that responded to the questionnaire have so far not been asked to reduce their staffing levels or to make budget cuts elsewhere, we found that five VI services have lost staff or had the hours of a post reduced since the beginning of 2010. A further two services have been able to fill vacant posts on a temporary basis only. In total, 4.5 posts have been lost or frozen since the start of 2010, of which 1.5 were QTVI posts and three were for staff members whose role included the modification and/or the production of accessible curriculum materials.
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A minority of services (three) are anticipating further losses of staff in 2011, with a further three expressing some uncertainty about the future.
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While most of the participating VI services have managed to retain their existing level of support for blind and partially sighted pupils, two have seen a reduction in support to certain groups of children and young people. These were children without CSPs, children whose sight difficulty was below a certain threshold and children with complex needs. One of the two services had also reduced support to children in the early years. Two services anticipated having to reduce provision to some children in the future.
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In conclusion, it would appear that a small number of VI services in Scotland have already been affected to some extent by public sector cuts. While most services appear not to have been affected so far, a degree of uncertainty was evident. It is important to ensure that any decisions that are made about the future funding and organisation of VI services in Scotland are based on a thorough understanding of their likely consequences for the education and life chances of blind and partially sighted children and young people.
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