Half of senior leaders working in the most disadvantaged areas of England expect their school to cut spending on teaching assistants in the next year to cope with budget pressures, a survey has found.
Significantly more leaders said spending will have to be reduced on teaching assistants, including those providing special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) support, than last year.
Some 50 per cent of respondents in the most deprived quartile of schools reported this in a June survey run by Teacher Tapp, up from 39 per cent at the same point last year.
This compares with 44 per cent of all schools, 42 per cent of the most affluent state schools, and 55 per cent of primaries overall.
Among fee-paying schools, the proportion expecting to cut TA spending had fallen from 22 per cent to 17 per cent.
Cuts to interventions and enrichment
More than two in five teachers at the most deprived schools also said they expected their school to cut spending on small group tutoring or interventions (44 per cent) and school trips or enrichment activities (42 per cent) in the next year.
Those expecting cuts to be made to small group interventions has increased since last year, when the figure was 36 per cent.
The Department for Education will no longer subsidise funding for the National Tutoring Programme from the end of this academic year.
More than half (55 per cent) of headteachers responding to the survey also said their school would have to cut spending on building or equipment maintenance.
Around two in five respondents at all school types said they would have to cut spending on resources such as textbooks over the next year.
Warnings from across the sector
The findings come as leaders across the sector warn that schools need more funding, and as leaders wait to hear about next year’s teacher pay award.
“We have concerns that there is no proper conversation going on about school funding, Stephen Morales, CEO of the Institute of School Business Leadership, told Tes last week. He called for the main political parties to set out more details on their plans for school funding.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has warned current funding pledges by the main political parties leave schools “in the dark” about how their budgets could evolve over the next parliament.
The IFS had previously warned that schools needed £700 million more in their budgets for next year to allow them to meet expected cost rises.
Teacher Tapp asked these survey questions on 26 June. In total, the survey received 2,497 responses.
The DfE has been contacted for comment.
