Special needs budget cut for city nurseries

From September, Cedars Primary School and Rickley Park Primary School will no longer offer provision for special educational needs to 14 pre-school children.

They are the only two council-run nurseries which offer these services at a cost of £170,000 a year.

An angry teaching assistant told the Citizen: “We are absolutely gutted, not just for our ourselves and how this will affect our ability to pay our bills and support our families, but how this will affect our neediest youngsters and families.

“The progress these children make with specialist one-to-one support over the course of a school year is amazing.

“My outrage increased when I read of the council plans to decorate and refurbish the council offices to the tune of six million pounds.

“What message does this give to our families and young children of Milton Keynes?”

Cedars Primary School has been running for 30 years, supporting children with hearing and visual impairment, Autism/Asperger syndrome, speech and language difficulties and delayed development.

A council spokesman said: “Every child in Milton Keynes that needs it, has access to SEN provision and that’s not changing. All the children accessing this provision at this nursery are moving up to school this September.”