A large group of parents protested outside City Hall to no avail today as Bradford Council’s executive voted through cuts to specialist teaching support services for children with disabilities.

The changes will see the support services for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) restructured into one service for children and young people aged zero to 25.

Protesters had gathered outside City Hall and some attended the meeting in the Council Chamber to hear the decision be made by the six members of the Council executive.

The new 0-25 Inclusive Education Service will be made up of two teams supporting high occurring special needs - such as autism - and low occurring special needs - such as sensory impairments.

Kevin Campbell-Wright, who helped organise the protest, said the decision would be “disastrous”.

He said: “For any of our children to progress and learn, the system needs to understand, and it doesn’t most of the time.

“Bradford Council is proposing it pays more for training with a reduced number of staff who will not be able to support our children through school.”

Another protester, who asked not to be named, said the Council should have looked at alternate options, and that she could not understand how the new system was going to work.

In the Council report, it states the Council will continue to fund its statutory requirements for SEND children.

Dominic Wall, head of Southfield Special School, said there is a “growing demand for children with complex needs” in Bradford.

He said: “In the past three years it has gone up in excess of 25%, but we have not had increased government funding to match the growth, but we get a fixed amount per place.

“In the past two years we have had to take £5 million from normal schools to fund the high-need block.”

Neil Terry, from Unite - the union, added he was concerned that funding had been cut “by 30%”, and that providing the statutory requirement means “the bare minimum”.

Councillor Imran Khan, executive member of education, said the subject was “very emotive”.

“This has been really difficult,” he said, “but we cannot spend money we don’t have.

“We were expecting £17 million from the government but only got half of that.

“We have to work with academies to make sure they buy into this. It is a national issue the government needs to properly address.”

Council leader Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe added: “It is important our SEND children are helped to learn and excel and we will continue to push central government on this.”

The decision to pass the changes to SEND support services was passed unanimously by the executive committee.