Due to cuts to central government funding, the IWCC has to make further cuts over the next year. Next week (30th Jan),  the council will meet to discuss more cuts to services. Among them is the proposal to cut aspects of the Disabled Children's Intervention Team -D.C.I.T. Plans include cutting 2 vital members of staff.

Many families who have children with additional needs are already at crisis point, suffering already because of the crisis in SEND provision. The staff at D.C.I.T  deliver an individualized, bespoke service, developing strategies that enable positive outcomes for all. They help to prevent children and young people spiraling into exclusions from school, going into care or prison, which all further drain our limited resources.

Last year Bob Seely MP met IW families with SEND, and listened to a renowned and award-winning expert, Yvonne Newbold, deliver a stark warning that without early intervention, children with SEND can find themselves in prisons, acute units, or suicidal. This can be prevented with a fully-funded service.

The recent OFSTED report praised the work of the D.C.I.T; ‘A range of innovative and effective services is helping to meet increased demand which include high quality, tailored and intensive support to families that contribute to improved outcomes.’

Island SEND families know this support is vital; ‘Without the support from the D.C.I.T. Team the strain on our family would have been unbearable. My mental health was suffering and the impact on X’s siblings was crushing at times. I am so grateful to them.’

With less staff and many hours cut from the already stretched service, the D.C.I.T will struggle to provide the same quality standard of life-changing supportive interventions.

Investing in an already effective service, rather than cutting it, makes long-term economic sense. Cuts to the D.C.I.T team will result in the need for much more costly interventions in the long term. The IWCC not only has an moral and legal obligation to these families, but also an obligation to Island tax payers to consider the long term financial implications of removing or under-resourcing these services.

Children with SEND and their families can be some of the most vulnerable people in need of support. We as a society should care for our most vulnerable citizens, especially vulnerable children. We have a moral obligation and duty to ensure all children on the Island have the support they need to thrive and fulfill their own unique potential. It's simply the right thing to do. Children, least of all vulnerable ones, should not shoulder the burden of austerity.

That is why we are calling on the Isle of Wight County Council to ring-fence the budget for Children's Services and the Disabled Children's Intervention Team (DCIT), so that these services are not cut, and the vulnerable families that need them are not plunged into isolation and despair.

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