Changes to the way the Government funds education and children's services mean four part-time special teachers could lose their jobs. Education reporter Haydn Lewis looks at the wider implications of the budget

THE education and children's services budget has been drawn up for the year ahead, with the result that four teachers who advise schools across the city on how to look after youngsters with special needs could lose their jobs due to a lack of funding.

Carol Runciman, City of York Council's children's services chief, said she regretted having to put forward the proposals, but they were "unavoidable".

It is due in part to the fact that this year the Government moved the goalposts on how schools are funded. In the past, it gave money to the council, which the council then had to use for schools.

Last year, the amount the council received for schools was £72 million. On top of that, the council spent an extra £3.5 million of its own council tax-payers' money on schools, making a total of £75.5 million.

For the new financial year, the Government will allocate the money directly to schools.

If the Government had allocated £75.5 million to schools, the council would have been £3.5 million better off, because the £3.5 million of its own money it spent on schools this year would have been available to spend elsewhere.

Council officials expected the Government to compromise, splitting the difference in a way which would have left them £1.6 million better off, but what actually happened was only £72 million was allocated.

The four teachers in the firing line also work out the rest of their timetable as classroom teachers, and it is not yet known whether the loss of their special needs posts will affect their other jobs.

If the cutbacks go ahead, support for teachers working with special needs pupils would then be provided by council officials.

Scarcroft Road head teacher Anna Cornhill, said the loss of this specialist advice would be a real blow for many schools.

Mrs Cornhill said: "This would be an enormous loss for schools. These teachers bring the sort of experiences that it is very hard to come by."

The School Forum is a panel of head teachers and governors, who will make decisions on the way education funding is allocated.

John Thompson, Lowfield School head teacher and School Forum chairman, said: "York's position as one of the poorest funded authorities in the country is slightly improving, but we are losing out."

The forum will discuss the budget on February 1.

Updated: 09:00 Wednesday, January 11, 2006