NALDIC and the NUT are very concerned at the impact that mainstreaming Ethnic Minority Achievement funding and local authority funding difficulties are having on support for ethnic minority and bilingual pupils. We have recently published a national survey which has indicated that not all local authorities have supported the legitimate retention of the £150,000 or 15% hold back of the EMA grant and that in some cases this has signalled the end of centrally funded EAL/EMA services. Our survey has identified many negative impacts of such decisions including:
- a reduction in pupil support;
- a reduction in availability and a rise in costs of valued additional school based work such as interpretation or home school liaison;
- a shortage of knowledgeable specialists when demand is rising; reduction in training opportunities and capacity building projects in schools;
- and a disproportionate impact on less well funded schools.
This has led to a deterioration in the quality and/or availability of support for ethnic minority pupils and students.
At the end of February we therefore jointly wrote to local authorities with a freedom on information request for the following information:
1. Whether the authority has agreed to continue to hold back the £150,000 or 15% of the EMAG grant to maintain central services;
2. Details of any changes to centrally employed teams working across EAL and ethnic minority achievement issues for 2011/12 and beyond;
3. Whether the authority has undertaken an Equality Impact Assessment on these changes.
Our report, published in May 2011, revealed that less than 50% of local authority respondents, many of whom had made significant changes to their services for bilingual young people, had undertaken an Equality Impact Assessment.
We continue to urge all local authorities to have due regard for the equality implications of their EAL/EMA service decisions.
