North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood has questioned the Education Minister this week over how the Welsh Government is supporting pupils with additional learning needs into post-16 education following concerns raised with him by a North Wales parent.
Speaking in the Chamber yesterday, Mr Isherwood, asked the Minister, Kirsty Williams AM, why additional learning needs pupils in Wales on post-16 courses at Derwen College in Gobowen, just across the Welsh border, are only being offered two year placements when pupils from England are offered three.
He said:
“After the Welsh Government announced in the last Assembly that placements to specialist colleges for students with learning difficulties and learning disabilities would normally now be for two years rather than three, I visited Derwen College in Gobowen just across the border, which takes students from England and Wales. The Welsh Government at the time responded by stating that this was flexible; it would consider individual cases according to individual circumstances and needs, and the College showed me that the third year was critical, because that's when they provide the direct work experience in partnership with employers locally.
“I've now been contacted by a Flintshire Mum, whose son attends the College on a two-year placement, who, in a review meeting, has been told that students from England can still have three-year placements, but students from Wales only two, and the flexibility that was previously available has not been made available to her. What is your current position to enable or ensure that students in Wales who need that third year can access funding for it through the appropriate processes, or is it simply now a blanket 'no'?
In her reply the Minister insisted it is not a blanket 'no'.
She said “We would expect the majority of placements to last for two years, however, all these placements come to me, as Minister, for sign-off and I know that I have signed off, for this financial year, a number of three-year placements, because that three-year placement has been designated and decided is the most appropriate length of study for an individual student.”
“And from time to time, we have requests that are brought forward to extend a two-year placement to a third year if that's in the best interest of the learners. So, there is absolute flexibility still in place within Wales, and the nature, whether it's two years or three years, or whether a two-year needs to extend into a third year is a matter of an individual's assessment, and there is no blanket policy of saying only two years.”
Mr Isherwood added: “My constituent told me that during a review meeting to discuss her son's progress, it became apparent that students with learning difficulties and disabilities who live in England are able to attend a Specialist Residential College for three years, whereas students who live in Wales can only attend for two years because these Colleges have been instructed by the Welsh Government to plan the programme of education for Welsh students for two years only. As she added, ‘I can't help thinking this is very discriminatory as had my son not had a disability and had he gone to University he would be undertaking a three year course’.
