(UK) Kent: Special school for 877 students/500 staff has $30M annual budget; more needed
- 16 minutes ago
- 2 min read
The head of the country’s largest special needs school has warned of possible redundancies amid rising staffing costs and lower-than-expected funding increases.
Five Acre Wood School in Maidstone supports 877 pupils from across Kent and beyond with severe and complex needs.
Teachers in this Five Acre Wood class provide medical support alongside teaching
But principal Peggy Murphy is now warning that without additional funding, job losses could be on the table.
She said: “There is a deficit budget in a lot of local authorities around high needs funding in SEND [Special Educational Needs and Disabilities].
“In order to bring that deficit down, we are looking at potentially cuts in our funding within special schools.”
Other options could see cuts in curriculum spending, which could result in worse outcomes for pupils.
While the school has received a 1% uplift in per-pupil funding from Kent County Council, that does not account for rising inflation or additional cost pressures. It is also lower than what some mainstream schools are receiving.
In particular, increases in the national living wage have proven to be a substantial cost for the school.
Mrs Murphy said: “We ended up having to pay £650,000 out of our budget to keep our teaching assistants and other staff being paid at the level [that is legally required].”
“We weren't supported by that as a special school. That had to come out of our budget.”
She added: “What we don't want is for that to happen again. We don't want to have to make redundancies.”
Five Acre Wood School has an annual budget of £22 million [$30M] a year, with more than 85% of that going towards the salaries of the more than 500 staff who work there.
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