'My son hasn't been in school since December': Petition to scrap Glasgow education cuts

A Glasgow mum is joining calls for Glasgow City Council to scrap cuts to education after her autistic son was left "traumatised" by a lack of support.

Natalie Blue, from Jordanhill, says 5-year-old Blake has not been in school since December after a difficult Christmas period.

He now receives two hours per day of tutoring through the Interrupted Learning Service (ILS) - a support service which allows the child to remain on the school roll but receive education at home.

'He was terrified'

Natalie said: "He went along fine in August, but schools at Christmas time are not great for ASN children because of changes in timetable and venue, and for ASN kids this is unsettling.

"Some people think it's just a child who doesn't want to go to school - that's not the case. It's quite traumatic for them.

"By the time he had to go back to school, he was terrified.

"His full behaviour had changed, he stopped playing with toys and he didn't want to leave my room.

"It's not bad behaviour, he was traumatised and that is down to the lack of resources in school because they don't have the ASN support they need.

"Blake won't even get out of bed in the morning for me to take his twin sister to school, you can see in his eyes he is terrified.

"He gets two hours per week of endorsed ILS at home and I do what I can with him, but I'm not a trained teacher.

"I'm on the phone daily trying to get something put in place, but there's just not the resources there so with extra cuts, it's going to be so much more problematic and detrimental to ASN children."

Cuts to MCR Pathways Coordinators

It comes after Glasgow City Council announced plans to cut hundreds of teaching roles, as well as 30 support coordinators from MCR Pathways as part of this year's budget.

MCR Pathways was founded in 2007 to "address the gap in life chances and educational outcomes" for children who need one-to-one support through education.

Since then, coordinators have been introduced in every secondary school in Glasgow supporting 2,000 disadvantaged young people.

Founder, Iain MacRitchie, has started a petition calling on Glasgow City Council to rethink the proposal, which would see the coordinators disappear from schools altogether.

At the time of writing, the petition has more than 3,000 signatures.

'These cuts cannot happen'

He said: "What the council announced to us initially was devastating, however, we are confident that when the truth and facts are fully understood, that will be reversed.

"We have 3,000 people who've signed a petition to that effect.

"What we really need to keep emphasising is that this is not just a budget cut for a period, this has lifetime implications.

"Young people being defined by their circumstances is not something we can allow to happen.

"They need to be given the opportunity and the relationships through MCR that means they're defined by their potential and their talents.

"MCR mentoring means that they engage with school, get more attached to the school, and their attendance changes. There is a transformational independent evidence on attainment impacts.

"This is a cornerstone of Glasgow, and a cornerstone of our most disadvantaged who don't have a voice. We're making sure with this petition they have a voice.

"These cuts cannot happen."

'Under review'

Glasgow City Council is currently reviewing the plans.

Council spokeswoman said: “A review of our MCR mentoring co-ordinators is underway following the council budget in February.

“Several options are being explored and no decision has been taken to stop the programme.

“A cross party, political oversight group has been established and we will keep staff and the relevant trade unions informed and updated of developments.

“We understand that this will cause a degree of uncertainty but with council savings of £108million over the next three years it is significantly more challenging to protect education expenditure.”

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