BUDGET cuts have left “exhausted” and “undervalued” support staff in Scottish schools struggling to maintain standards for pupils, a public service union warned yesterday.

In a report from Unison entitled Hard Lessons, staff reported increasing workloads, job cuts, a shortage of educational supplies and dirtier schools in the face of rising numbers of pupils, including those with educational support needs.

Of the workers surveyed, more than half (54 per cent) said that budgets had been cut and more than a quarter (27 per cent) described those cuts as “severe.”