SPECIAL needs teachers who may lose their jobs have spoken out against the planned cuts.

The four "area learning support teachers", who provide specialist help in York schools, face redundancy under £1m budget cuts.

But in an open letter to education chiefs, the teachers today attacked the proposals, saying they would be to the "detriment of the educational needs of young people in the city".

The letter, which will be handed to a meeting next Wednesday, said the area teachers "provide front line, high-quality specialist teaching in every York primary school over the course of each year.

"They can teach as many as 400 children within that year.

"This particular expertise is often not available in schools and their unique skills are in danger of being lost if these redundancies go ahead."

The four area teachers affected by the cuts, who have not been named, split their time between advising other teachers and working in the classroom.

The letter says: "Area teachers develop, deliver and adapt a wide range of programmes, covering all areas of the curriculum to meet individual needs - literacy, numeracy, speech and language communication and personal and social development."

Putting extra money into schools instead: "does not always ensure that these vulnerable children receive the specialist teaching they need", say the teachers.

The letter adds: "It is essential to retain a strong base of experienced and practising special educational needs teachers."

But York council's children's services chief Carol Runciman said: "I regret these proposals have to be made but I can't see any other way of saving the money we need to save.

"It has been discussed by the schools' forum, which is a meeting of representatives of heads and governors, and this proposal was put forward along with a number of other cuts which members regretted having to recommend."

If the area teachers lose their jobs extra support would have to be provided to schools by council officers on its special needs team, she said.

In the future, individual schools could perhaps look at using their own budgets to pay for area teachers, added the councillor.

The Government is reducing funding for learning, culture and children's services by £1m in April, which Coun Runciman said was due to it underestimating the need in York.

"They tend to think of us as a leafy suburb, which we are not," she said. "We are among the lowest 20 funded councils out of 150 authorities."

Updated: 11:28 Wednesday, January 11, 2006