In the Guardian today:

Lack of specialist staff hinders support for Send children, teacher survey finds – National Education Union poll finds 89% feel class sizes in England are too big to be ‘properly inclusive’. Oversized classes and inadequate staffing levels are hindering teachers’ capacity to support children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send), according to a large survey of state school teachers in England.

Nine out of 10 (89%) of the 10,000 teachers who took part in the poll by the National Education Union (NEU), before its annual conference in Brighton which starts on Monday, said class sizes were too big to be “properly inclusive”.

Four out of five (83%) said insufficient numbers of support staff in the classroom created a barrier to inclusion, while seven out of 10 (69%) said lack of access to specialist services was also a problem.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/mar/29/lack-of-specialist-staff-hinders-support-for-send-children-teacher-survey-finds

So, let’s take the class size issue first. In 2025:

Primary schools:

• England: 26.4
• Scotland: 23.1

Secondary schools:

• England: 22.5
• Scotland: Official statistics do not collect or publish a single average class size for secondary schools, because class sizes vary widely by subject (e.g., smaller for practical lessons like science or PE, larger for others). However, the much lower pupil-teacher ratio in Scotland (around 12.6) strongly suggests that secondary teaching groups are generally smaller than in England.

Scotland’s significantly better staffing levels translate into meaningfully smaller classes in primary and likely smaller teaching groups in secondary compared with England.

Broader Context – Scotland has maintained smaller class sizes (and lower PTRs) than the rest of the UK for many years, partly due to policy emphasis on teacher numbers and historical funding differences. England’s primary classes remain among the larger ones in developed countries according to OECD comparisons.

Sources:

https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics/2024-25 https://www.gov.scot/publications/pupil-and-teacher-characteristics-2025/pages/pupils-and-classes/

Now, support staff:

From Pupils with additional support needs and additional support for learning: FOI release published today, the above table.^{1, 2}

The above data represent a 26 % increase in pupil support assistants and an194 % increase in behaviour support staff since 2018.

Sources:

1. https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202500466074/
2. https://www.gov.scot/publications/school-support-staff-statistics/