Nearly three-quarters of leaders in primary schools have had to cut teaching assistant roles amid financial struggles, a poll suggests.
In a poll by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) on behalf of the Sutton Trust, 74 per cent at primary school senior leaders reported having to cut TAs this year.
And 41 per cent of leaders in secondary said their school has had to cut teaching assistant roles.
More than one-third of secondary senior leaders surveyed said they had to cut teaching staff (38 per cent), compared with 31 per cent of primary school leaders.
Many respondents also reported having used their pupil premium funding to plug gaps in their budgets. Half of primary school leaders said their school had done this - an increase from 42 per cent last year.
Schools forced to cut TAs
Sir Peter Lampl, founder of social mobility charity the Sutton Trust, said: “It’s disgraceful that increasing numbers of school leaders are having to cut essential staff and essential co-curricular activities.
“The situation for primary schools, in particular, is one of rapid deterioration, with half of them having to use funding to plug gaps that should be used for poorer pupils.”
More than one-quarter of secondary leaders surveyed also said that funding struggles meant their school had to cut back on GCSE and A-level subject choices.
The reports of TA cuts come at time when the number of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) has significantly increased, with a 19 per cent rise between 2018-19 and 2022-23.
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said schools “are facing an increasingly desperate financial position and are having to make impossible decisions over where to make cuts.
“Reducing teaching assistants means less support for children with additional needs; reducing teachers means larger classes and cuts to the curriculum.”
School trips and IT equipment reduced
Leaders at schools in the North East were most likely to report having cut teaching staff (45 per cent of respondents).
More than half of all leaders surveyed reported having to reduce IT equipment, and 50 per cent reported cutting school trips. The latter was more common among primary school leaders.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, said a failure by the government to invest enough in children’s education “is hitting some of the most vulnerable children the hardest”.
More than one in four senior leaders also said they have had to cut sports and extracurricular activities.
‘Deepening crisis’
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU teaching union, said: “This is a clear indication that something has gone seriously wrong with school funding.”
And Dr Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union. said the figures were evidence of “the deepening crisis this government has created in our schools”.
Schools have been increasingly reporting struggles with cost pressures. Despite funding increases, the purchasing power of school budgets will be 5 per cent below 2010 levels in 2024 due to cost increases, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).
The IFS said schools need £700 million more for next year to balance budgets, and would need £3.2 billion to address the loss of purchasing power in their budgets since 2010.
School business leaders have warned that cost pressures have left schools facing a new “financial crisis”.
The survey was completed by 1,282 teachers in March of this year.
A Department for Education spokesperson said school funding is rising to the highest ever level in real terms per pupil this year to help school leaders meet costs, and the pupil premium will have increased by 10 per cent between 2021-22 and 2024-25.
“School leaders have flexibility in how they choose to use their pupil premium to best support disadvantaged pupils and close attainment gaps,” the department added.
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