THE National Deaf Children’s Society has launched a campaign after the county council revealed it is cutting £85,000 of its support to the 300 deaf children in Somerset.

Over 30 parents have also come together and written to the council to ask it to reconsider its decision.

Somerset County Council has not yet disclosed which services will be cut.

But every teacher of the deaf in the county, and every specialist teaching assistant who supports a deaf child, has been asked if they would like to take voluntary redundancy. 

Local parents and the National Deaf Children’s Society are concerned that staff who support deaf children may be lost, access to technology their children rely on will be cut back, and deaf children will start to fall behind as a result.

The threat of cuts in Somerset comes at the same time as new Government data shows that deaf children in the South West are failing to achieve the grades they should.

The data shows that deaf children in Somerset and the South West are falling more than a whole grade behind their hearing friends at school.

In addition, four out of five of the region’s deaf children are failing to meet the Government’s target of achieving a good GCSE in English and Maths.

Sarah Collinson, South West regional director at the National Deaf Children’s Society, said: “It’s absolutely heart-breaking that Somerset County Council have proposed such deep and damaging cuts to the system the county’s deaf children rely on.

“This service, the teachers of the deaf, the teaching assistants and the managers within it are an absolute lifeline.”