Schools’ budgets in Wokingham are set to be slashed to fund special educational needs services after getting backing from reluctant headteachers.

Headteachers agreed that they should skim on average half a per cent from their mainstream budgets to add to the “high needs” education spending instead. This is part of a condition attached to a grant that Wokingham Borough Council (WBC) was given by the government earlier this year.

WBC expects its schools funding budget to have a total deficit of £19.5 million by the end of this financial year, March 2024. This is almost entirely down to the rising costs of providing services for children with special educational needs and disabilities.

The government has agreed to pay Wokingham Borough Council a “safety valve” grant worth just over £20 million between 2022 and 2029 to spend on special educational needs services.

READ MORE: £19 million schools funding hole threatens Wokingham Borough Council

But in return the council must promise to reduce its deficit in special educational needs, partly by skimming money from schools’ mainstream budgets.

Headteachers last month hit back at initial proposals last month to take around one per cent from each of their schools budgets – with many saying they were already stretched.

Council leaders and bosses argued that without the grant, the council would have to find millions of pounds elsewhere in its budget or else “the whole thing could collapse”. But they agreed to ask headteachers whether they would accept a 0.5 per cent cut instead.

Headteachers on the council’s schools forum voted to back the new proposals on Monday, November 6.