By FRANCESCA MOLD and LIBBY MIDDLEBROOK
The country's education service for children with special needs is to be replaced by a new version controlled by the Education Ministry.
Education Minister Trevor Mallard and his associate minister, Lianne Dalziel, yesterday revealed the plans to disestablish Specialist Education Services (SES).
The decision follows a report by Dr Cathy Wylie that recommended the change. She found angry parents and a system rife with inequalities for the 25,000 to 30,000 pupils reliant on SES.
Sue Robertson, a Howick mother of two children with disabilities, said she was pleased to hear of the change, although there needed to be an attitude shift across the entire education system, driven by the new organisation.
Her daughter, Katie, 14, who has Autistic Spectrum Disorder, had been shunted through more than four mainstream schools. One group of teachers had clapped when they heard Katie was leaving.
"It's the alienation and rejection you feel so profoundly."
The changes are still being worked through, and the new organisation will not be formed until next year.
Specialist Education Services was set up as a crown entity in 1989 to work with special-needs children, their schools and families. In 1997, Education Minister Wyatt Creech created the SE2000 policy which made SES' services contestable, so that it was forced to charge schools and parents or take a portion of Government funding attached to each child.
Mr Mallard said concerns about the effect of contestability in terms of increasing overhead costs and creating fragmentation were a big reason for the restructuring.
Officials are considering setting up between 4 and 6 regional centres, with a further 4 to 8 local offices stemming from each one, to replace SES.
Mr Mallard said he expected several million dollars would be saved by the restructuring. This money would be reinvested in services for children.
There might be job losses, relating to the creation of a less "bulky" administration, he said.
But he believed in the long term more people were likely to be employed by the new service.
The head of the Coalition of Parents for Special Education, Colleen Brown, welcomed the changes, although she wanted to know more about the effect on families.
"It's got to be more than switching [organisation] names."
Mrs Brown said parents needed better support networks and up-to-date information about special-needs education.
The Educational Institute yesterday supported the Government move.
President Amanda Coulston said the fragmentation created under the old system had resulted in duplicated costs, varied levels of service and a lack of accountability.
Ms Coulston said it was important to recognise that the scrapping of SES reflected not on the staff but on "bad policies."
NZEI intended to talk to the Government about ways to minimise upheaval for staff.
New service for special needs
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