Schools at ‘breaking point’ as funding slashed

AN IMPENDING crisis is looming in Hull’s schools, the city’s headteachers have warned, issuing an impassioned plea for funding over special needs.

Schools are at “breaking point”, headteachers said, writing last month to Education Secretary Damian Hinds. Specialist schools are full, they said, while mainstream schools are increasingly resorting to exclusions to “deal” with challenging pupils.

“There is a feeling that something has to change or schools will implode,” the letter concludes. “We are concerned that we do not have the resources to properly meet the needs of the most vulnerable young people in our communities in many different ways.”

The issue, raised by Hull West and Hessle MP Emma Hardy in Parliament this week, is one she says of a funding formula which hits special education needs and disabled children hardest.

It was a “disgrace”, she added, that teachers were resorting to writing to the Education Secretary directly to plea for money.

The number of pupils in Hull with complex care plans for special educational needs and disabilities rose to 1,226 last year, equating to three per cent of the city’s school population. Funding shortfalls, headteachers warn, redundancies and the loss of teaching assistants and support staff is a “shortsighted” resolution.

Mike Whale, Hull secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), said austerity had created a “perfect storm” of increasing demand, squeezed budgets and the need to make further cuts.

“Everybody is affected by this, in particular the pupils and families of those with special educational needs,” he said.

Hull City Council has said it is working closely with headteachers and agencies to increase provision and support, as well as investing in children’s services.

The authority has seen “huge” budget reductions in central funding, a spokesman added, of 55 per cent from 2010 to 2019.