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More than 40 per cent of school leaders have cut back on support for students with special educational needs and disabilities as schools experience a squeeze on finances, a survey suggests.

Schools are continuing to cut staff, school trips, sports and extracurricular activities, as well as reducing the subject choices they offer at GCSE and A level, according to a poll for social mobility charity the Sutton Trust.

Four in five senior leaders expect to make further cuts next year, particularly to teaching assistants and tutoring, the survey of 1,105 teachers and leaders from 958 state schools in England, which was conducted by the National Foundation for Educational Research, found.

Union leaders warned that the findings show how school finances “remain in a perilous state” and expose a “mismatch” between the government’s ambitions for schools and the funding provided to meet them.

Nick Harrison, chief executive of the Sutton Trust, called on the government to “target measures that will rebalance funding towards the pupils and schools that need it most”.

Concerns over SEND funding

Of those polled, 43 per cent of school leaders reported cutting support for pupils with SEND, with primary schools significantly more affected than secondaries.

The government set out sweeping reforms to the SEND support system in February.

These planned reforms are backed by £1.6 billion over three years to help schools and colleges become more inclusive, £1.8 billion to create a bank of SEND specialists in every area, and £200 million for SEND teacher training.

While the reforms and their aims have received support, sector experts have expressed concerns about the level of funding provided to deliver them.

Cuts to support staff

The Sutton Trust survey shows that 71 per cent of senior leaders have had to cut back on teaching assistants, up from a figure of 50 per cent in a similar survey last year.

Some 49 per cent of senior leaders said other support staff had been cut and 30 per cent said teaching staff had been reduced.

These figures were both down on last year, when 55 per cent of senior leaders reported cuts to support staff and 51 per cent reported cuts to teaching staff.

Around three in 10 school leaders said cuts have been made to subject choices at GCSE (30 per cent) and A level (28 per cent), while almost half said they have cut trips, and a third have cut down on sports and other extracurricular activities.

Some 86 per cent of the senior leaders polled said they believe pupil premium funding - which is extra cash provided to schools to support disadvantaged pupils - is not enough, with four in 10 saying they use the money to plug gaps elsewhere in their school’s budget.

Finances in ‘perilous state’

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, said the last thing leaders want to do is cut provision for pupils, but warned that school finances remain in a “perilous state”.

“It is clear that much more investment is still needed to turn this situation around and to ensure schools are fully equipped to deliver on the government’s proposed reforms to the broken SEND system,” he added.

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the Sutton Trust’s findings show the “contradiction” between the government’s aspirations for education and the funding being provided to realise them.

“Although the government has made some additional funding available, this is unlikely to be sufficient to support reforms on the scale envisaged or address existing funding shortages,” he said.

The NEU teaching union said schools are “running on empty” and are being forced to make cuts “simply to survive”.

Daniel Kebede, the union’s general secretary, said: “It is indefensible that the government continues to underfund schools.

“Starving schools of proper funding can only lead to cuts, cuts and more cuts.”

The survey was conducted from 6-11 March and had an almost even split between primary (51 per cent) and secondary (49 per cent) teachers.