Schools report cuts to staff, subjects and SEND support

According to new polling by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) for the Sutton Trust, schools are continuing to cut back on staff, subjects and SEND support as they struggle with squeezed finances. 

The survey of 1,105 teachers reveals many senior leaders reporting cuts to teaching assistants (71%), support staff (49%) and teaching staff (30%).

Four in 10 senior leaders (43%) reported cuts to support for pupils with SEND. These cuts were particularly acute in primary schools (45% vs 25% for secondaries). This underlines the urgent need for action on staffing capacity if mainstream schools are to educate more pupils with SEND.

Around three in 10 secondary school leaders continue to report cuts to subject choices at GCSE (30%), and at A Level (28%). 49% of all school leaders reported making cuts to IT equipment, 47% to trips and outings and 32% to sports and other extracurricular activities. Again, the scale of these cuts was more drastic for primary schools, which were also twice as likely to report cuts to sports and extracurricular activities than secondary leaders (34% vs 15%).

Meanwhile, ahead of a government consultation on the funding model for disadvantaged pupils, views on the pupil premium have barely improved since last year.  86% of senior leaders still believe the pupil premium is not enough. And despite overall increases in school funding, 43% of senior leaders reported that they’re still having to use pupil premium to plug gaps elsewhere in their school’s budget.

The polling does indicate some improvements over the past year. Most notably, the proportion of secondary senior leaders reporting cuts to teaching staff saw the largest improvement, at 38% down from last year’s high of 51%.

But optimism about the future is limited. For the first time, the Sutton Trust asked teachers whether they expected their school would have to make cuts in the next academic year (2026/27). Four out of five expect to make cuts in the year ahead (81%). The most common areas for anticipated cuts were on teaching assistants (59%) and tutoring (41%).

This also reflects the continued decline of in-school tutoring in recent years. Around half (52%) of senior leaders reported having had to make cuts to one-to-one and small group tutoring for financial reasons. Meanwhile, 72% of those in schools that had taken part in the post-pandemic National Tutoring Programme reported providing much less tutoring since that scheme ended. This matters, because in-person tutoring is an effective means of closing the attainment gap between the most and least disadvantaged pupils.

The Sutton Trust is calling for a boost to funding where it can make the most difference. This should start with rebalancing the national funding formula back towards the most disadvantaged communities, and restoring the pupil premium back to its 2014/15 levels, as its value has been decimated by inflation over that time. This will help to deliver on the government’s bold ambition to halve the disadvantage gap by 2040.

Extra resources for school staffing and access to specialist SEND support are also urgently needed, if mainstream schools are to deliver on the government’s ambitions to improve the availability and quality of SEND support.

Commenting, Nick Harrison, CEO of the Sutton Trust, said: "Schools are in a financial crisis that’s more than a decade and a half in the making, and we’re seeing the long-term results of those cuts today. Meanwhile, the funds intended for the most disadvantaged children are being further devalued and diverted elsewhere. And there remains considerable uncertainty about how the huge SEND reforms will be paid for.

"With ambitious government reforms on the horizon, now is the time to target measures that will rebalance funding towards the pupils and schools that need it most. At some point, we need to decide whether we’re serious about education in this country or not."