Special needs school 'needs cash'

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 3rd Apr 2008

school

A special needs school requires an extra £370,000 a year to cope with an increase in the levels of care its pupils need. Jersey's Mont a L'Abbe school is attended by children from five to 19 and recently expanded onto two sites.

Over the past few years there has been a rise in the number of pupils with profound disabilities. The island's education department has asked for a budget increase to provide the kind of care those children need.

Without a rise in funding the school would be unable to respond to the pressures on its facilities, according to the Education Department's assistant director for policy and planning, Jeremy Harris. He said: "It is not just about numbers, there is an increase in the type of provision we need to make... in one case we have someone who needs two full-time staff to look after them."

The Education Department said more complex needs have to be met because there has been a rise in the survival rate of children with severe and multiple disabilities. It said more of them are now able to attend school and they need to be given suitable care. The department hopes Mont a L'Abbe will benefit when the 2009 budget plan is discussed by the States Assembly in July.