High Court halts cuts to deaf children support in Stoke

Governance | Kirsty Weakley | 30 Aug 2011

The High Court has ordered Stoke-on-Trent City Council to stop its planned cuts to educational support services while it considers a legal challenge from the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS).

On Monday 12 September the court will decide whether to grant NDCS a judicial review and in the meantime the council will not be able to implement planned changes to its support services which had included cutting another teacher-for-the-deaf.

Jo Campion, NDCS deputy director of policy and campaigns, said: “The High Court’s decision will be a relief to parents of deaf children in Stoke who have been in a constant state of uncertainty about their children’s future for months.”

Last March four teachers took voluntary redundancy and the council planned to change the job description of one teacher so that they no longer worked directly with deaf children. This would mean that from September there would have been three visiting teachers for Stoke-on-Trent's 200 deaf children.

The charity began legal proceedings earlier this month with solicitors Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and a barrister from 11KBW providing free legal support.

A spokesperson for the council said it would not be commenting at this stage.

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