SPEND ON SEND

Many of you reading this have children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). Some of you were SEND children when you were at school or college. Many more of you will know someone in this situation. You will know how important SEND funding is and how much damage the Conservative government has caused by dramatically cutting that funding. SEND funding is the money that the government allocates to meet additional needs. It pays for teaching assistants, equipment, speech and language therapy, signers and scribes, and many more provisions that are essential to enabling disabled kids to access education on equal terms to their peers. And yet the Tory government has cut this funding while spending huge sums on tax cuts for big companies and the super-rich, and on bribing its political allies. Five years ago, the government replaced Statements of Special Educational Needs with Education, Health and Care RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: october 2019 :: RMTnews 22 R MT South East Regional Council members presented a cheque for £200 in solidarity with the members of Unite LG branch library strike. They have been out solid for 15 weeks already over privatisation / contracting out library services in the borough of Bromley in Kent. Tory-run Bromley Council are a commissioning council whose mantra is to contract out all their services. Since winning the contract for library services, it has cut wages and conditions as well as reduced staff numbers to less than skeleton level through wastage and disciplinary action without replacing them. Dispute representative Kathy Smith came along to the regional council and gave a report on the dispute and some of the innovative ways they are campaigning around the strike. Messages of support to bromleyunite1@outlook.com SPEND ON SE Protest against SEND cuts at Hackney Town Hall SUPPORTING BROMLEY LIBRARY STRIKE RMT disabled members’ advisory committee chair Janine Booth exposes spending cuts for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)