Schools will be forced to cut special needs support staff in order to fund a share of the teacher’s pay rise, teachers have warned.
The i Paper has spoken to multiple headteachers and school leaders who say that despite suggestions the pay rise is “fully funded” many schools will still need to find cash to top up the 3.5 per cent pay award.
With finances already stretched SEND staff will likely to feel the brunt of cost-cutting which is likely to result, they argue.
It comes as local authorities are being driven into a projected deficit of £10.4bn by 2028 over the size of the bill for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) as more children need support – 1.8m children in England have special educational needs, a rise of 91,400 (5.2 per cent) since 2025.
Kulvarn Atwal, executive headteacher at The Thinking Schools Federation, which includes Highlands and Uphall primary schools in Redbridge, said: “The budgetary pressures on schools are intense – without a funded pay rise, we will be projecting a deficit budget in 2027/28. Which will mean that we will have to make cuts.
“Because we have been cutting costs year after year, the only way we can further cut costs is through staffing – particularly admin staff and support staff for children with SEND.“
How the teachers’ pay rise will be funded
The Department for Education denies making any claim that education secretary Lucy Powell said the pay rise would be fully-funded, and maintains that it is pouring “record investment” into schools and is investing billions of pounds in special needs.
The row centres around the 3.5 per cent teacher pay award announced in July. The government said an extra £700m would be made available this year, and £1.1bn next year to help cover this. However, this only meets 2.5 per cent – leaving schools to find the extra 1 per cent.
Last month Powell wrote to unions to say unexpected savings from pensions contributions – which schools could keep – meant she was confident the cost of the wage rise could be met “at a national level”.
This was widely interpreted as suggesting the pay rise was “fully funded”. National Education Union’s general secretary, Daniel Kebede, hailed the decision as a victory, saying it meant the pay award would be “fully funded”.
However, unions have since claimed that the savings from the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) has already been absorbed into schools’ budgets, meaning there is no extra cash.
They also point out that while “at a national level” suggests the overall extra cost is covered from a budget point of view, individual schools will still face short falls.
‘It’s a significant impact on us’
Matthew Jessop, headteacher of Crosthwaite Primary School in Cumbria, said: “The award is 3.5 per cent. The government is paying for 2.5 per cent and schools are paying the rest. And from what I can work out – and we’re still waiting on clarity – what changed in September was a press release from the government. The actual maths and the funding implications for schools didn’t change at all. Fully funded at a national level doesn’t mean anything to me at all.”
Asked how much an unfunded pay increase could cost the school, he said: “We could be looking at up to several thousand pounds. I know it’s nothing for big schools. For our school, the difference between staying in surplus and deficit at the end of every financial year is usually a couple of thousand pounds or less. So it’s a significant impact on us.”
Jessop said he was expecting to make a saving on pension contribution reductions, which was going towards funding teacher pay increases and employing SEND professionals such as speech and language therapists and clinical psychologists.
Stephen Morales, Group CEO at the Centre for Educational Operational Excellence and Chair at East Midlands Academy Trust, said leaving the teacher pay increase partially unfunded creates a “real additional cost pressure”.
He said for a trust with an annual teacher salary bill of £10 million, a 1 per cent unfunded pay increase equates to £100,000, excluding national insurance costs, which equates to around two qualified teacher salaries.
Morales said this will not necessarily translate into teacher cuts, but said: “Some may choose to cut in other areas, the trouble is in smaller schools there’s nowhere else left to cut.”
There ‘will be cuts’
Another primary head – Steve Hitchcock, head of St Peter’s C of E Primary School in Budleigh Salterton, Devon – said: “We’ve been told that the government will not claw back savings from a reduction in employer contribution rates for the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).
“However, we have literally no idea how that will affect our school – and it will affect each school differently. There is always smoke and mirrors with these announcements, and I can say I don’t trust any government any more to fund our education system.
“What I can say for certain is that most schools I know – including mine – are losing staff due to lack of funding. I lost a part time teacher at Easter that I couldn’t replace. My deputy has to teach one day a week (with the same amount of work) and my SENCo has seen our SEND numbers double, but still only has two days a week to support this, because we are in a deficit budget situation. The whole thing is a mess.”
Dan Morrow, CEO at Cornwall Education Learning Trust, said there “will be cuts” if teacher pay is partially unfunded, but the effects will be “uneven”, hitting areas of higher deprivation and disadvantage.
“That’s because those schools tend to be much closer to the line anyway, because they have to spend their funds on additionality around safeguarding and wider family support. They therefore have far less agility.”
He noted that his own trust is in a “robust” financial position as he was “cynical” as set the trust’s budget presuming the teacher pay award would not be fully funded.
But he said staff cuts across schools would “look at all levels”, adding: “Over the last few years, support staff numbers have been reduced in the sector, partly because the primary school numbers are coming down so drastically. I don’t think there’s really much there left. I think it will end up in teaching and leadership, or it will end up in significantly larger class sizes.”
He warned that an unfunded pay increase could disrupt schools from delivering on the Government’s SEND goals, saying: “We’re being asked to become more inclusive and to accommodate more children with complexities of need, which I agree with. But to do that, we cannot see what is effectively an unfunded pay rise act as a barrier and inhibitor to that.”
‘Cynical attempt to manufacture a row’
Shadow Education Secretary Laura Trott has also warned that some schools will be left short and demanded to know whether they will get extra cash to cover the gap.
In a letter to the Education Secretary, seen by The i Paper, Trott says the savings vary widely. Some academy trusts, including some special schools, have reportedly seen their pension bills rise rather than fall.
“While savings may average out nationally, this does not mean that every school or trust will have sufficient savings to cover its increased pay bill,” she writes.
Meanwhile, the NASUWT and the ASCL school leaders’ union have also criticised the move. Its general secretary, Pepe Di’Iasio, said: “There is, unfortunately, an element of smoke and mirrors here.” He warned that “many schools and trusts will not be able to cover those costs without making further cutbacks”.
A survey by the NAHT heads’ union this week found that one in three school leaders knew of talks about redundancies or restructuring, with most blaming a lack of funding. The union is urging ministers to find extra money in the Budget.
A DfE spokesperson said: “This is a cynical attempt to manufacture a row around claims that were never made.
“Our position has been consistent throughout. The new valuation of the Local Government Pension Scheme has strengthened schools’ financial position overall, supporting the whole school workforce and helping schools invest in teachers and support staff alike.”
“This Government is backing schools with record investment. By September 2027 teachers will have seen pay increase by 17 per cent since we took office, and we are providing an additional £700 million for schools in 2026-27, rising to £1.1 billion in 2027-28, helping schools continue to deliver the best outcomes for children.”
“That’s on top of our £4 billion-backed reforms to make sure every child with SEND gets the support they need, including by increasing access to specialists in every single school and rolling out training for every teacher.”