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Education and Employment

Funding cuts take toll on support for students with vision disabilities

Thousands of children and young people with vision disability are being failed because of a shortage of funds for specialist education services, research by the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) has found, The Guardian reports.

Less than half (44%) of councils in England have either cut or frozen funding for educational support for VI children, putting specialist provision under significant pressure, according to the RNIB report.

A similar proportion (43%) have already had reductions in specialist staff and increasing workloads for those who remain, and almost a quarter (24%) are planning further reviews that could result in more cuts.

The charity’s research, based on a freedom of information survey of local authorities in England, estimates that 11,000 children and young people have been affected by cuts, out of a total of about 30,000 with vision disability.

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