Closure of service teaching children English as a second language in East Sussex proposed

East Sussex County Council is consulting on proposals to close the English as an Additional Language Service (EALS) – a service which supports refugee children in local schools and other pupils who don’t speak English as their first language.  

The service had previously been funded by the county’s maintained schools agreeing to give over part of their budgets to the county council, which then runs the service on their behalf.

But in September, representatives of secondary schools at the East Sussex Schools Forum voted to withdraw their share of this funding, with the council saying it can no longer afford to run the service as a result.

An East Sussex County Council spokesman said: “Although this wouldn’t apply to primary schools, unfortunately it would not be viable for the council to continue to provide the service without the funding we receive from secondary schools.

“Without this funding, we wouldn’t be able to cover the staffing and non-staffing costs such as travel expenses required to continue to provide a comprehensive county-wide service covering the full range of languages we need to cater for.

“The duty to provide this service lies with schools and it’s important to stress that there is no reduction in funding and that under these proposals, children who require this kind of support would continue to receive it but directly from schools rather than through a pooled service run by the council.”