Schools in Cambridgeshire are considering redundancies as initial funding allocations suggest the county will get only a “very minimal uplift” in funding.
One academy trust CEO said the funding pot provided to Cambridgeshire for its schools was “inadequate”.
Helena Marsh, principal at Linton Village College, said some schools are considering redundancies or not replacing people, adding that those staff members Picture: iStock.
Cambridgeshire County Council said funding for the core schools block has increased by 0.7 per cent for 2025/26, which officers described as a “very minimal uplift”.
Funding for the high needs block has increased by seven per cent, which officers said was “nowhere near sufficient” for what the area actually needed.
The authority asked the Cambridgeshire Schools Forum if it would agree to support a transfer of £2.6million from the core to the high needs block.
Officers explained the money would be used to help support the creation of new Enhanced Resource Bases (ERB), which they said would be a way to help keep children in mainstream education and avoid an “escalation into more expensive provision”.
Concerns were raised at a meeting of the forum on Friday (10 January) about taking money away from the core schools block funding.
Nikki Brown, headteacher at Morley Memorial Primary School in Cambridge, said she could not support the plan as she said it “implies that we have capacity in schools to make that transfer”.
Ms Brown, who represents Cambridge Primary Heads, said headteachers had shared “very real concerns around the potential implications on schools capacity to deliver ordinarily available provision” if more money is moved out of school budgets.
She said: “There was a very strong sense from primary heads that we have reached that point where schools are already having to make cuts. I was sat on a fair access panel this week for a young person who is out of school on an exclusion, and every single primary school that was sat there were saying they were unable to afford the level of support that young person had had in the existing school, and even with that support they ended up in an exclusion.
“Whilst we absolutely want to support the development of those ERBs, I think it would be naïve to think that if we transfer money out of schools block into the high needs block that we are not going to see another knock on effect of that.”
Helena Marsh, principal at Linton Village College, said some schools are considering redundancies or not replacing people, adding that those staff members may be the ones who are supporting children with extra needs, and said this would have an impact on SEND provision within schools.
Officers said ERBs on their own are “not the entire solution”, but said they would be part of the solution to try and help children remain in mainstream schools while accessing specialist support.
They were asked what would happen if the forum decided not to support the transfer of £2.6m.
Martin Purbrick, executive director for children, education and families said he believed this was an opportunity for the authority and schools to work together on the plans.
Mark Woods, trustee and chief executive officer at the Meridian Trust, offered support for the plan, but hit out at the low level of school funding Cambridgeshire received compared to other areas.
He said if the county was funded differently they “wouldn’t even be having this conversation” about transferring money.
Mr Woods said the funding pot for the county was “inadequate” and said they were being placed in a “terribly invidious position” of having to make decisions about what things can be funded.
The majority of the forum agreed to the transfer, but said they wanted to see an impact from that extra funding to the high needs block.