Schools forced to cut support for pupil for special needs

The National Association of Head Teachers has warned that support for pupils who have special needs is ‘beyond crisis’ and ‘sucking money from budgets’ for all children.

Arguing that funding has to rise so all pupils can be supported to learn, the NAHT finds that 97 per cent of all schools responding to a survey said they received insufficient funding to support pupils who had special needs.

Funding for higher-level needs was rising 9.6 per cent in 2022-23 and the Department for Education was providing £42 million to projects for pupils who had special educational needs and disabilities. But the NAHT report, based on a survey of 1,500 head teachers, suggests nearly a third of schools have cut services in the past year. One in four predicted their budget would be in deficit in 2021-22.

Additionally, four-fifths said they had been forced to buy extra services, including speech and language therapy, educational psychologists and mental health support, which prior to austerity would have been provided by local councils, often more cost-effectively.