Home teaching services for disabled children in UK community cancelled

From BBC News:

Parents of disabled children want Bath & North East Somerset Council (Banes) to think again about plans to cut a home teaching service.

The service, known as portage, will be cancelled from this summer.

The council says other organisations now do the same work and insists no one currently getting the service will be affected.
But parents say they believe no other service can match the results which the portage workers have achieved.

Portage is a home visiting and teaching service for pre-school children with special needs.

Youngsters with learning or physical disabilities get an hour or so of specialist teaching in their homes every week, often with specialist toys.

Sophie Lawrence from Bath has a son with Down's syndrome.

She told BBC Somerset: "I just don't understand why the first people they have to target are little, mentally impaired and disabled children between the ages of zero and three.

"Why target them first? It doesn't make sense."

Another mother, who did not wish to be identified, said she has seen her child go from timid to confident in the past 16 months.

She believes the progress is due to the portage sessions: "My child has reached so many targets with portage that I thought it was impossible to achieve in such a short while."

Carol Boys, chief executive of the Down's Syndrome Association, said: "This is complete madness.

"Portage has a successful international track record of aiding the development of children with Down's syndrome and has been used in the UK for many years.

"I cannot believe that a local authority would take such a retrograde step and cut such a vital service."

Banes said there had been "significant improvements" to services for young children with special needs in recent years.
It said children's centres, playgroups, area special needs co-ordinators and other specialists were "providing the support that parents tell us they need".

The council said the service is not taking on new cases but will carry on with existing clients until the summer.