Schools will be forced to cut special needs support staff in order to fund a share of the teacher’s pay rise, teachers have warned.
The i Paper has spoken to multiple headteachers and school leaders who say that despite suggestions the pay rise is “fully funded” many schools will still need to find cash to top up the 3.5 per cent pay award.
With finances already stretched SEND staff will likely to feel the brunt of cost-cutting which is likely to result, they argue.
UK approves drilling in Jackdaw gas field
Gas from the Jackdaw field will start flowing within weeks after the Government approved the project in an effort to improve domestic energy security and grow the economy.
Why has it been approved?
The Government says the approval of Jackdaw will increase domestic gas production by around 6 per cent at its peak, protect hundreds of jobs and provide an estimated £2.9bn economic boost.
- Tax revenues from North Sea oil and gas will also go into a new energy wealth fund, backed with an initial £2bn, which will invest in renewable and low carbon projects.
- Ministers argue that while UK households and businesses are still using gas, it makes more economic and environmental sense to increase domestic production rather than rely on imports shipped from other countries.
Why is the project controversial?
The approval of Jackdaw has been criticised by environmental campaigners who want to accelerate the shift away from fossil fuels. Both Jackdaw and the Rosebank field were approved for drilling licences in June 2022, but these were overturned by the Scottish courts after a challenge from campaigners.
New public consultations on the proposals took place this year and closed in August. The Government has not yet greenlit Rosebank.
What does this mean for your energy bills?
The approval of Jackdaw will not bring down soaring bills because gas prices are set by global markets, and energy minister Michael Shanks acknowledged “we will not stop being a net importer of fossil fuels because of this decision”.
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Nigeria confirms Ebola case
Nigeria reported its first Ebola case in more than a decade on Tuesday, becoming the fourth African country to be affected by the outbreak.
Where has Ebola been detected?
- Ebola disease from the fast-moving outbreak in Congo has now spread to four other countries.
- This is including two where it’s active.
- It was first declared in eastern Congo in mid-May.
- Nigeria confirmed an Ebola infection in its capital, Abuja.
- This was in a woman who arrived from Uganda about two weeks ago.
- Uganda has reported 20 cases but none are active.
A closer look at confirmed cases so far
- Kenya announced its first Ebola case on 6 October, involving a man who traveled from Congo via Uganda before arriving in the capital, Nairobi, on 3 October.
- France confirmed a positive case of Ebola in June in a doctor travelling back from Congo.
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Should Britons be worried?
The World Health Organization has said it is the fastest-growing outbreak of Ebola in history. However, France is still the only country outside Africa to have recorded a case in this outbreak. The UK Health Security Agency says the current outbreak “poses a low risk to the UK population”.
Imported cases are extremely rare, only four confirmed cases have been reported in the UK since 1976, and there have been no UK deaths from the disease.
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Australian MP’s legs amputated after ‘politically-motivated attack’
Doctors have amputated both of Australian MP Helen Haines’s legs after she was repeatedly hit by a car in an apparent act of political violence, her husband said.
What happened?
Haines remains in critical condition. The 65-year-old independent politician is receiving treatment in a Melbourne hospital where she was flown by helicopter.
Haines’s husband said her left leg was amputated on Monday and her right leg was amputated on Wednesday after doctors abandoned hope of saving it.
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What her husband said
The good news in all this is that Helen is alive and she’s stable. That is the most iortant thing for our family… We are grateful and thankful that at this stage, both her heart and her mind are in good shape.
Phil Haines
The alleged attacker
Brendan Nugent, a 43-year-old man from nearby Tarrawingee, has been charged with intentionally causing serious injury, dangerous driving causing serious injury and causing harm to a federal official.
- Police have yet to determine a motive.
- Witnesses say the driver rammed his victim, pinning her against her own car before reversing and ramming her a second time.
- Nugent’s lawyer Chirag Patel said he was suffering from potential mental health issues but had never been diagnosed with any mental health problem.
- Patel said Nugent suffered from a concussion and a neurological condition, idiopathic transverse myelitis, which disrupts nerve signals between the brain and body, leading to rapid muscle weakness and sensory loss.
Judi Dench: Cats film was a waste of talent
Actor Dame Judi Dench has described the 2019 film , the adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, as a “waste” of “goodwill and talent”.
She starred as the wise moggy Old Deuteronomy and has so far declined to watch the movie.
What she said
Oh God, I can’t bear it, and [Lloyd Webber] had waited so long for it to be made. What a waste of all that goodwill and talent. I understand the critics were rather hostile to the film. I never saw the final cut so I can’t judge. All I’ll say is nobody sets out to give a poor performance or make a bad film. You do your best… and hope that people will get on board and join the party.
Details revealed in new memoir
In her forthcoming memoir, Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It?, Dench said she felt “ill at ease from the beginning – I just didn’t feel right in the role”, reports.
She said young dancers were ignored at the end of each take. However, she said she enjoyed meeting co-star Taylor Swift and receiving 50 everlasting roses, spraypainted gold, from Jason Derulo, another co-star.
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Why was the film panned?
The director, Tom Hooper, has been criticised for how he adapted the musical, including error-prone use of CGI. He has not made a film since.
Lloyd Webber has said “the whole thing was ridiculous”, “off-the-scale wrong” and that it caused him to become a dog owner.
Drinking tea may be good for your heart
Tea drinking is good for your heart, and drinking it regularly reduces the risk of vascular disease by 11 per cent, research has found.
What did the study find?
A study in China published in the Journal of Internal Medicine looked at the risk of vascular disease in 485,934 people.
- Those who drank about six to eight cups per day were found to be at the lowest risk of vascular disease among weekly tea drinkers.
- Vascular disease can include heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, pulmonary heart disease and peripheral artery disease.
- Tea consumption combined with not smoking and exercising was associated with the lowest risk.
The expert view
This doesn’t prove that a daily cuppa protects your heart. This was an observational study and other differences in people’s diets and lifestyles could help explain the findings… We need further evidence before assuming the findings apply in the same way to people in the UK.
Dell Stanford, senior dietitian at the British Heart Foundation
Actor Noel Clarke in court over sexual offence allegations
Actor Noel Clarke is expected to appear in court today charged with sexual offences against five women.
What has he been accused of?
Clarke, who has appeared in and is accused of two counts of sexual assault, three of voyeurism and one of exposure between 2007 and 2016.
The offences are alleged to have taken place in London and Dorset. Clarke has previously denied any allegations of inappropriate behaviour or sexual misconduct.
What do police say?
Bethan David, deputy chief Crown prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Our prosecutors have worked to establish that there is sufficient evidence to bring this case to court and that it is in the public interest to do so.”
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How to be more grateful for daily life in five easy steps
The world feels like a difficult place at the moment, and it can feel very hard sometimes to find things to be thankful for; when we are overwhelmed, we have less capacity to notice and reflect on the good things. Yet, ironically, proactively cultivating gratitude is one of the things that can actually help us feel less stressed.
NHS GP dR RADHA
The science
Research has shown that feeling or expressing thanks can actually alter our brain.
- The balance of neurotransmitters change; more serotonin and dopamine (feel good chemicals) are produced.
- This can be long lasting if we make gratitude a regular habit.
- We also get a decrease in our cortisol (stress hormone) levels which helps lower anxiety.
- Being grateful can strengthen the nerve pathways which triggers positive emotion.
How can we build gratitude?
Change your words
Instead of seeing something as a problem, try to see the opportunities within it.
Our brains are very receptive and what we read or write can alter our emotional system.
Express it
This will not only make you feel good, but you will also get a positive response from others.
How can we build gratitude?
Notice more
Throughout your day, try to notice all the things that are going well; has someone opened a door for you, or smiled?
The basics
By being thankful for the small things every day, we are far more likely to be and stay healthy so that we can enjoy them.
What to do
Gratitude can lead to feelings of optimism, lower our blood pressure, and improve sleep quality.
- Write down what potential good aspects there are to the things you don’t feel like doing, or even what could be worse about it.
- Spend a few minutes writing down three things that you are looking forward to that day, or the good things that have happened to you that day.
- Say thank you to yourself for the things you have achieved, or managed to get through and changed that day.
Sales of battery
electric vehicles hit a record high last year.
Starts at £22,995 for the smaller battery
Available with either a 40kWh battery or a larger 52kWh pack, that offers almost 255 miles, the latest, retro-inspired Renault 5 is both a joy to behold and a hoot to drive.
The interior has been lavished with a level of detail that’s typically reserved for more expensive cars.
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A champion of EV efficiency
It offers a remarkable 491 mile range on a single charge from the 85kWh battery.
It is a technological masterclass inside with the ability to option screens that span the entire width of the dashboard, including an optional display for the front passenger.
Priced from £37,400
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It’s a lot of money to part with, but this is arguably all the car you will ever need.
The £89,000 Macan is a premium SUV that somehow manages to blend Porsche’s reputation for dynamics and sporty driving with everyday practicality.
The 95kWh batteries can go from 10 to 80 per cent in as little as 21 minutes from the fastest public charging outlets.
With the business class-style six seat configuration costing a staggering £76,995, it is by far the most expensive Kia ever made, but it backs up its financial demands with a suite of genuinely useful and impressive onboard technology.
It’s fast, goes a long way between stops and charges relatively quickly but the interior is bland, the onboard technology is infuriating and the experience is devoid of emotion.
All of its gadgetry can’t disguise the fact that performance is weak, even for a typically zippy EV, the ride is fussy at slower speeds and it’s not in the least bit enjoyable to drive on a country road.
- While good value (prices start at £17,935) for the 200-mile max range, there are more interesting options from Hyundai, Citroen and Renault for similar money.
- It attempts to wow with tech, much of which hinders, rather than helps.
- There’s no tangible benefit over mounting your phone to the dash.
- Simply an average driving experience, adequate range and slow charging speeds.
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It comes as local authorities are being driven into a projected deficit of £10.4bn by 2028 over the size of the bill for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) as more children need support – 1.8m children in England have special educational needs, a rise of 91,400 (5.2 per cent) since 2025.
Kulvarn Atwal, executive headteacher at The Thinking Schools Federation, which includes Highlands and Uphall primary schools in Redbridge, said: “The budgetary pressures on schools are intense – without a funded pay rise, we will be projecting a deficit budget in 2027/28. Which will mean that we will have to make cuts.
“Because we have been cutting costs year after year, the only way we can further cut costs is through staffing – particularly admin staff and support staff for children with SEND.“
How the teachers’ pay rise will be funded
The Department for Education denies making any claim that education secretary Lucy Powell said the pay rise would be fully-funded, and maintains that it is pouring “record investment” into schools and is investing billions of pounds in special needs.
The row centres around the 3.5 per cent teacher pay award announced in July. The government said an extra £700m would be made available this year, and £1.1bn next year to help cover this. However, this only meets 2.5 per cent – leaving schools to find the extra 1 per cent.
Last month Powell wrote to unions to say unexpected savings from pensions contributions – which schools could keep – meant she was confident the cost of the wage rise could be met “at a national level”.
This was widely interpreted as suggesting the pay rise was “fully funded”. National Education Union’s general secretary, Daniel Kebede, hailed the decision as a victory, saying it meant the pay award would be “fully funded”.
However, unions have since claimed that the savings from the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) has already been absorbed into schools’ budgets, meaning there is no extra cash.
They also point out that while “at a national level” suggests the overall extra cost is covered from a budget point of view, individual schools will still face short falls.
‘It’s a significant impact on us’
Matthew Jessop, headteacher of Crosthwaite Primary School in Cumbria, said: “The award is 3.5 per cent. The government is paying for 2.5 per cent and schools are paying the rest. And from what I can work out – and we’re still waiting on clarity – what changed in September was a press release from the government. The actual maths and the funding implications for schools didn’t change at all. Fully funded at a national level doesn’t mean anything to me at all.”
Asked how much an unfunded pay increase could cost the school, he said: “We could be looking at up to several thousand pounds. I know it’s nothing for big schools. For our school, the difference between staying in surplus and deficit at the end of every financial year is usually a couple of thousand pounds or less. So it’s a significant impact on us.”
Jessop said he was expecting to make a saving on pension contribution reductions, which was going towards funding teacher pay increases and employing SEND professionals such as speech and language therapists and clinical psychologists.
Stephen Morales, Group CEO at the Centre for Educational Operational Excellence and Chair at East Midlands Academy Trust, said leaving the teacher pay increase partially unfunded creates a “real additional cost pressure”.
He said for a trust with an annual teacher salary bill of £10 million, a 1 per cent unfunded pay increase equates to £100,000, excluding national insurance costs, which equates to around two qualified teacher salaries.
Morales said this will not necessarily translate into teacher cuts, but said: “Some may choose to cut in other areas, the trouble is in smaller schools there’s nowhere else left to cut.”
Another primary head – Steve Hitchcock, head of St Peter’s C of E Primary School in Budleigh Salterton, Devon – said: “We’ve been told that the government will not claw back savings from a reduction in employer contribution rates for the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).
“However, we have literally no idea how that will affect our school – and it will affect each school differently. There is always smoke and mirrors with these announcements, and I can say I don’t trust any government any more to fund our education system.
“What I can say for certain is that most schools I know – including mine – are losing staff due to lack of funding. I lost a part time teacher at Easter that I couldn’t replace. My deputy has to teach one day a week (with the same amount of work) and my SENCo has seen our SEND numbers double, but still only has two days a week to support this, because we are in a deficit budget situation. The whole thing is a mess.”
Dan Morrow, CEO at Cornwall Education Learning Trust, said there “will be cuts” if teacher pay is partially unfunded, but the effects will be “uneven”, hitting areas of higher deprivation and disadvantage.
“That’s because those schools tend to be much closer to the line anyway, because they have to spend their funds on additionality around safeguarding and wider family support. They therefore have far less agility.”
He noted that his own trust is in a “robust” financial position as he was “cynical” as set the trust’s budget presuming the teacher pay award would not be fully funded.
But he said staff cuts across schools would “look at all levels”, adding: “Over the last few years, support staff numbers have been reduced in the sector, partly because the primary school numbers are coming down so drastically. I don’t think there’s really much there left. I think it will end up in teaching and leadership, or it will end up in significantly larger class sizes.”
He warned that an unfunded pay increase could disrupt schools from delivering on the Government’s SEND goals, saying: “We’re being asked to become more inclusive and to accommodate more children with complexities of need, which I agree with. But to do that, we cannot see what is effectively an unfunded pay rise act as a barrier and inhibitor to that.”
‘Cynical attempt to manufacture a row’
Shadow Education Secretary Laura Trott has also warned that some schools will be left short and demanded to know whether they will get extra cash to cover the gap.
In a letter to the Education Secretary, seen by The i Paper, Trott says the savings vary widely. Some academy trusts, including some special schools, have reportedly seen their pension bills rise rather than fall.
“While savings may average out nationally, this does not mean that every school or trust will have sufficient savings to cover its increased pay bill,” she writes.
Meanwhile, the NASUWT and the ASCL school leaders’ union have also criticised the move. Its general secretary, Pepe Di’Iasio, said: “There is, unfortunately, an element of smoke and mirrors here.” He warned that “many schools and trusts will not be able to cover those costs without making further cutbacks”.
A survey by the NAHT heads’ union this week found that one in three school leaders knew of talks about redundancies or restructuring, with most blaming a lack of funding. The union is urging ministers to find extra money in the Budget.
A DfE spokesperson said: “This is a cynical attempt to manufacture a row around claims that were never made.
“Our position has been consistent throughout. The new valuation of the Local Government Pension Scheme has strengthened schools’ financial position overall, supporting the whole school workforce and helping schools invest in teachers and support staff alike.”
“This Government is backing schools with record investment. By September 2027 teachers will have seen pay increase by 17 per cent since we took office, and we are providing an additional £700 million for schools in 2026-27, rising to £1.1 billion in 2027-28, helping schools continue to deliver the best outcomes for children.”
“That’s on top of our £4 billion-backed reforms to make sure every child with SEND gets the support they need, including by increasing access to specialists in every single school and rolling out training for every teacher.”