Plans to close 10 primary school special needs centres across the county – including one in Watford – have been put forward by Hertfordshire County Council.

As part of the proposal, staff will be relocated from their current bases into four travelling teams which would visit primary schools in the area as part of the council’s Special Education Needs and Disability (SEND) service.

One school set to lose its special needs centre is Laurance Haines Primary School in Vicarage Road, which serves 56 primary schools and specialist provisions in Watford and the surrounding area.

Mo Mills, whose granddaughter gets educational support from the base, says she had to fight for years to get her dyslexic son the help he needed.

“What’s going to happen when they take away these bases? The children are going to fall through the cracks,” she said.

“My granddaughter has come on in leaps and bounds, her confidence has gone up so much but the teaching needs to be constant.

“I think the county council are picking the bones now, and it’s always the disabled, the young and the old that get affected. I feel so bad for all the children.

“This has got to be nipped in the bud now, and people should know about it now.”

Lynne Williams, team leader at Laurance Haines Specific Learning Difficulties Outreach Service, said: “We understand that difficult financial decisions have to be made at every level in education currently but hope local residents will respond to the consultation which is seeking views as to whether the best way to enhance this service is to levy a 58 per cent cut to funding, reducing staffing and condensing the existing 10 bases into four centrally located teams.”

“Being a locally based team, we are also able to offer schools a valuable, local, specialist resource library, ultimately saving individual schools money. It has been a real pleasure to work with schools in the Watford and surrounding areas, building understanding and helping schools to meet the needs of their learners.”

Cllr Nigel Bell added: “This is the last thing we need right now. We must try to stop this decision, especially after what happened with Nascot Lawn.

“This is a long-standing site for helping children in the area. We will do all we can to keep it open.”

The council says the vast majority of students identified with specific learning difficulties currently have their needs met in their local mainstream schools, supplemented with outreach support from a number of bases located across the county.

However after conducting a review, the Hertfordshire County Council said an enhanced service could be provided if the bases were closed.

The council also said “reasonable steps” would be taken to avoid compulsory redundancies “should this be necessary”.

A consultation will run until November 20 so people can comment on the proposed changes.

The council’s education, libraries and localism panel will consider the outcome of the consultation before elected members make a final decision at a cabinet meeting in April 2018.

If agreed, the changes will be implemented from September 2018.

In a statement, Hertfordshire County Council said: “The existing provision has been in place for over 20 years, and over that time schools have greatly increased skills and knowledge of specific learning difficulties (SpLD).

“They are now able to meet the needs of the majority of pupils with SpLD and require a service which can support them to meet more complex levels of need where they may not have the expertise themselves.

“The proposal is to close the existing bases and to provide support for complex SpLD as part of the council’s integrated specialist support service.”