A HUGE rise in the amount of requests from schools to help children with “high needs” has prompted a rethink into Cumbria’s education budget.

Cumbria County Council, which controls local authority schools’ purse strings, says that there’s been an 80 per cent increase in the number of requests from increasingly under-pressure schools.

It's led to the authority needing to claw back a reported £8m-plus overspend with headteachers fearing they'll need to cut jobs to find the savings.

The potential cuts could mean a three per cent slash in every school’s budget.

They are just one of a series of proposals being looked at to address the rising costs of helping Cumbrian children with special needs.

A Cumbria County Council spokesman said: “We are working closely with schools on this issue to find a way forward.

“We have to recognise that pressure on the budget reflects an 80 per cent rise in the number of requests from schools for assessments of children leading to an EHCP over the past two years, these requests are based on the needs that children have and we have a duty to meet them.

“Inevitably this large increase has an impact.”

The move has sparked claims from one union leader that the authority is passing the problem on to schools and governors and, if agreed, does not give schools sufficient time for voluntary or compulsory redundancy periods.

Figures show that Trinity School in Carlisle and Ullswater Community College in Penrith – two of the biggest secondary schools in Cumbria – would see some of the largest losses – £190,887 and £177,633 respectively.

The Cumbria Primary Headteachers Association (PHA) is urging its 200-plus members to consult governing bodies and send representations to the county’s schools forum before the consultation closes at the end of the month.

The forum is a panel of education figures who advise the county council about school finance issues.

PHA chairman Shaun Monaghan, head of Jericho Primary School in Whitehaven, said: “As schools we’re asked to set a budget for three years and that is what we’ve done. If schools fall into deficit then they have to pay that back – we’re not allowed to be in deficit. Then to be told in the second year of that cycle that they’re taking away another three per cent, it can only mean reductions in staff or facilities for children.”