PUPILS in Halton with special educational needs will no longer have access to council cash for extra support, a leaked email has revealed.

The announcement was made in an email sent to schools by Halton Council.

The email informs teachers that from April 1,  the council will no longer fund resources required for children who need extra support  because of special needs, disabilities or behavioural problems. 

These resources, known as enhanced provision, include teaching assistants, handwriting, spelling and numeracy interventions, educational psychologist consultations and emotional support. 

Previously, teachers in Halton could apply to the council for enhanced provision funding for pupils whose individual needs cannot be met within mainstream school settings.

This includes children who have suffered trauma or need additional language, hearing or visual assistance. 

However, the council email said that due to “severe budgetary constraints” and increased demand for higher needs support,  the council will stop funding all future enhanced provision applications for primary and secondary pupils.

Schools will now have to meet the cost of those needs from their own resources.

The email states: “I appreciate the current situation is very disappointing for you and recognise the challenge  it poses. This is not a position we would have wanted to be in, though it was one we predicted when consulted by the Department for Education on the changes to the high needs budget arrangements.

“Please be assured that we remain committed to working in partnership with you to support all our children and young people.”

There is an estimated £2.1 million gap in Halton’s higher needs budget. 

School representatives said they might have to consider redundancies for special needs teachers as a way of making savings at a schools forum meeting last month.

Members of the forum added that any decision they made regarding savings would be done so “reluctantly.”

However, chairman of Halton Liberal Democrats David Coveney, said austerity was no excuse for making cuts that would target the most vulnerable. in society. 

He said: “We appreciate that like all councils nationwide, Halton Council is struggling with recent reductions in funding from central government, but to target cuts to the most vulnerable in society strikes us as being a poor approach.

“Consequently, we ask Halton Council to look again and reconsider and find money from elsewhere so that the education of these children is looked after without impacting the ability of hard pressed teachers and assistants to do their jobs.

“We also have to question the approach of Halton Council in sending this email to schools just prior to the Easter holiday, announcing changes commencing the 1st of April.”

A Halton Council spokesman said that an increase in Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), which they have a statutory obligation to fund, has forced them to make cuts to enhanced provision instead.

EHCPs are for children and young people aged up to 25 who need more support than is available through special educational needs support.

The council spokesman added: “The local authority has to meet its statutory responsibility and continue to fund its contribution to Education Health and Care Plans.  Funding will also continue to be allocated to schools to contribute towards the costs of any  previously agreed enhanced provision.”