SOARING numbers of children identified as having special needs, rising costs and inadequate Government funding are fuelling the “biggest school funding crisis in decades”, a leading headteacher has warned.

Dean Judson, chairman of Darlington’s School Forum, has issued the alert as the borough council is set to appeal to Whitehall for radical funding changes.

The moves follow the Department for Education announcing additional funding for special educational needs in Darlington of £234,000 for this year, which is £1.4m less than needed to balance the special needs books.

Once the special needs overspend from 2017/18 is included, the council’s total overspend in the area will be about £3m.

As a result, the forum, an advisory and decision-making body for the allocation of funding for the borough’s 30 schools, has agreed about £400,000 should be top-sliced from mainstream schools budgets to help plug the special educational needs shortfall.

Cllr Cyndi Hughes, the council’s children and young people cabinet member, said the authority was doing all it could to cut the costs from the high needs budget, such as providing more placements in the borough, but that would take time.

The funding situation in Darlington is being aggravated by 3.3 per cent of pupils - above the national average - having been classed as having special needs - a rise of 77 per cent between 2013 and last year.

Cllr Hughes said: “I am so grateful that the School Forum has recognised that children with special needs and their families are very worried about the future and that we need to plug that gap. The Government funding is just not keeping up with the rise in demand.”

Mr Judson said the funding diverted for special educational needs alongside rising staff, energy and pension costs, were pushing mainstream schools “towards the cliff-edge”.

He added Government initiatives such as healthy eating and mental health were putting additional strain on school budgets.

Mr Judson said: “Schools are funding more than they ever have before and the Government funding isn’t keeping pace with the level of expenditure that schools are having to shell out.

“The Government are beginning to recognise this, giving extra money, but the money they are putting in is not going to address the amount schools need to spend. If this situation is not addressed eventually it will lead to staff cuts.

“This is thee biggest funding crisis for schools in nearly a quarter of a century. Politician are saying they want to create a world class education system, and if so they will have to fund it. That’s not the c2ase at the moment. It is proving extremely difficult to educate children to that level with the funding we have at the moment.”