Since graduating from university, I have worked in a further education college in inner London teaching students with learning difficulties and/or disabilities aged between 16 and 21. I love my work. But what I hate is having to witness the strain financial cuts in the public sector have had on young vulnerable people and their families.
The most recent of these was last week, when we were informed that one of the local education authorities we work with would be cutting the transport provision for the students to get to and from college as of 1 April. This has already happened in other parts of the country and it seems likely that other LEAs will follow suit.
In effect, as most of these students do not have the capability to travel independently, they will either have to be escorted to and from college by parents or carers, or pay for transport out of their own pockets. Since many parents and carers work full-time and many of the students who access our courses are from poorer backgrounds, this lack of provision will have a profound effect and will likely lead to some dropping out of the education system prematurely.
We have already seen the cutting of transport provision for students deemed "able enough" to travel independently by their LEA. Unsurprisingly, whether a vulnerable young person is, in fact, "able enough" is often disputed by parents concerned with their child's welfare. Many parents have had to fight hard just to ensure that their sons or daughters are getting to college safely and receiving the education they are entitled to.
Until recently, one parent was accompanying her 16-year-old son on a four-hour round trip every day just so he could attend our college. This, of course, had a great impact on her day-to-day living. Since she was a single parent with a limited network of support, it also meant that when she was ill, or had essential errands to run, the student was unable to attend. After a lengthy appeal process, numerous reference letters from the college and meetings with local MPs, the student was finally given the transport provision he and his mother desperately needed. It now looks likely it will be taken away again.
Unfortunately, this is just one of many difficulties our students have faced lately. Funding cuts to the college have meant that students in my department have lost two and a half contact hours a week; and many students are now being refused basic provisions such as personal budgets (money that the young person with a learning difficulty can spend on their own needs).
People often misunderstand the phrase equal opportunities as meaning treating everyone the same. This is incorrect; it means treating everybody differently so that we have equal access to opportunities. I have lost count of the number of news reports and newspaper columns about organisations reliant on government funding that are under threat due to the cuts, from local community centres to opera houses. I have sympathy with all of them. However, in a fair and just society the needs of the most vulnerable must come first.
I don't see this as a political matter of left v right, but as a matter of conscience. If we believe that the measure of a society is found in how we treat our weakest and most helpless citizens, then I am saddened and embarrassed to be a part of this one.