How does deprivation affect school spending on support staff?

picture: Tes

Secondary schools with a pupil cohort with high levels of deprivation spend just over 2 per cent more of their budget than other schools on education support staff.

There could be multiple reasons for this. Typically, schools with a more deprived cohort tend to have higher rates of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities, and therefore support staff would need to be more prevalent and, in cases where there was an education, health and care plan, this would be funded, too. 

But those schools in deprived communities are also more likely to employ higher numbers of non-teaching pastoral staff, as well as home-link and community workers.