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.
