Mar 4, 2020, Docklands & East London Advertiser: Protest parents deliver £12m invoice to Downing Street for special education needs https://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/education/12m-invoice-for-special-education-needs-1-6543901 Parents and schools across the East End have handed in an "invoice" for £12 million [$16M US] to 10 Downing Street calling on the Prime Minister to fill the funding gap in special educational needs. They delivered their 'invoice' on Friday after a protest march from Parliament Square, signed by hundreds of parents and Tower Hamlets school staff. It follows a long campaign by Tower Hamlets Council and the National Educational Union for Whitehall funding to catch up with rising costs and rapidly rising demand for special needs services which is leaving local authorities to pick up the bill. Tower Hamlets received £49m from the government last year for special needs education — but it cost another £7m to keep the services going. The gap is forecast to reach £12m by 2022, the East London Advertiser has learned. … Demand for special educational needs has risen in the East End by 43 per cent in the past four years, yet the funding only increased by 5pc, according to the teachers' union. This has left a £7m shortfall, which increase to £12m in the next two years. The union's district secretary Alex Kenny said: "We have so many children out of school because lack of funding means that specialist support can't be provided." ….
