***(UK) Gloucestershire cash crisis due to kids 'far more complex in need than ever'

Jan 31, 2019, Stroud News and Journal: 'Rationed paper and leaky roofs': MPs debate school cash 'crisis' https://www.stroudnewsandjournal.co.uk/news/17400459.rationed-paper-and-leaky-roofs-mps-debate-school-cash-crisis/ The budgets of Gloucestershire’s schools are “on the brink”, with the most vulnerable children paying the price, a government minister was told yesterday. Five out of the county’s six MPs were at a special debate in Parliament on funding for their schools on Wednesday, called by Stroud's David Drew - the only Labour MP in the room. Shrinking class sizes, leaking roofs and even rationed paper were some of the symptoms of squeezed budgets that teachers and parents had raised with Dr Drew ahead of the debate. But, addressing schools minister Nick Gibb, Dr Drew homed in on the struggle of special needs schools in the face of a forecasted £4.7m [$6.2M US dollars] shortfall in the county's Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) budget. He told the minister: "Cuts to SEND funding have not kept pace with rising demand. "The fact is that Gloucestershire has a special needs crisis and this is having a knock-on effect on provision for all children."… Cheltenham MP Alex Chalk, citing schools in his constituency like Belmont, said part of the county's SEND crisis came from the fact that schools "are dealing with a cohort of pupils that are far more complex in need than ever, and that is what underlines the increased demand in resources." And Richard Graham, Gloucester's MP, denied that Gloucestershire's schools were facing cuts, saying: "Actually the amount of money is going up. To talk about 'deep, unjustified and ongoing cuts' is surely wrong." …