SPECIALIST teachers are being told they will no longer be able to teach children who need extra support due to cuts, the National Education Union (NEU) warned yesterday.

Unqualified teaching assistants are set to replace a special educational needs team employed by East Sussex Council after it issued the staff with new contracts.

In what has been branded a cost-cutting exercise and a deskilling of the service, highly qualified and experienced teachers will now only be employed to give advice to schools and class teachers.