Head of UK’s largest SEND school warns of redundancies - amid national funding shortage

Five Acre Wood School in Maidstone supports 877 pupils from across Kent and beyond with severe and complex needs.

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 a year, with more than 85% of that going towards the salaries of the more than 500 staff who work there.

Jobs on the line could include the school’s social worker, therapists and counsellor to support vulnerable pupils.

Billy Flowers is a learning approach leader at the school who oversees five classrooms.

She said: “If those cuts were to happen, I think it would be of a massive detriment to staff and pupils.

“We definitely wouldn’t feel like we would be able to give the provision that the children deserve and need.”

More than 50% of children at the school have autism, with the level of complexity ranging from moderate to severe.

“We have eight children in here and a higher staff ratio,” said the teacher.

“To take that ratio down, even for us, would have a dramatic impact on the pupils’ learning.”

Five Acre Wood receives the majority of its funding from Kent County Council, with other grants and donations helping to make up the rest.

But the local authority says it has received no inflationary uplift from Whitehall for SEND funding compared to that for mainstream schools, which has impacted how much it can distribute.

Cllr Beverley Fordham (Ref), the cabinet member for education and skills at Kent County Council, said: “The two funding streams come from different sources.

“Mainstream schools are funded directly from the Department for Education, so they included a 2% uplift.

“According to a national formula, that’s then distributed out. Some of the schools did get a full 2%, some of the mainstream schools didn’t get any percent uplift, but that’s strictly to a criteria.”

She added: “With the high needs budget, that is sent to us – and we were given zero uplift.

“So that is why we made a decision to at least give some uplift, rather than nothing.”

The High Needs Funding block, which is where money for SEND schools comes from, is currently frozen at 2025-2026 levels.

“It’s up to the government,” said Cllr Fordham. “They are the ones carrying out the SEND reforms. They’re the ones who are deciding how they’re going to finance the system and changes that they’re bringing in.

It comes as a new survey suggests that two in five school leaders have cut back on support for students with special educational needs and disabilities, as schools continue to struggle more widely with a squeeze on finances.

But funding arrangements for local authorities are not yet clear, with that ambiguity being cited as a key reason for the 1% uplift.

“We need to wait to see how that’s going to shape up before we can commit to any funding, or different ways of funding.”

High needs funding for children and young people with complex needs – including those in mainstream and special schools – saw a national increase of 11% in 2025-26, with KCC set to receive more than £372 million this year.

But the local authority says that while the high needs grant has increased overall, that is a result of consolidating grants that had previously been given separately, warning there is no extra funding for inflation or demand.

After numerous requests for comment as to why SEND schools are receiving a lower uplift in funding than mainstream schools, a Department for Education spokesperson provided this statement.

They said: “Our once-in-a-generation reforms are overhauling a broken, one-size-fits-all SEND system that has failed children for too long – backed by £4 billion to ensure every child gets the right support, in their local school, at the earliest possible stage, without having to fight for it.

“We are building a more inclusive education system that delivers support earlier, restores financial sustainability and ends the postcode lottery once and for all.”