Disability groups have expressed concerns about cuts to a service which helps children with autism in Sutton.

Sutton Education Services which helps schools and families to promote inclusion and well-being among autistic kids is set to drop from four staff to 1.9 following the cuts in funding from Sutton Council.

Groups expressing concern include the The Sutton Parents Forum, the National Autistic Society (NAS) Sutton branch and the Sutton branch of the National Union of Teachers (NUT).

A spokesman for the NAS said there could be "an enormous impact."

He said: "As council budgets and school funding have been cut, families of children with special needs increasingly find they have to battle for help – a fight many do not win."

But Sutton Council said the proposed cuts were a way of balancing the books.

A council spokesperson said: “In common with all other local authorities, Sutton is having to consider ways of reducing expenditure. We currently maintain a number of services that provide advice and support to schools, and who work with individual children, but which are not statutory.

“Following consultation with the local Schools' Forum, we have, with reluctance, reached the conclusion that we can no longer sustain such provision, particularly since a large number of our schools are now academies which means we do not receive any funding for services that they use."

Andy Gibbons, of Sutton NUT, said: "By removing access to specific services such as the ASD service and the Independent Advice Service, these families and their children are further being failed and discriminated against.”

'I understand the financial pressures that Sutton Council are experiencing from a serious shortfall in Government funding, but it will be of great concern to parents and teachers that there will be a cut of two full time posts in the Autism service. This will mean less expert assessment of children who have autism, and the responsibility being shifted onto schools."

Sutton Parents' Forum, a group of families of children with disabilities, took to Facebook to urge people to email their concerns.

Sutton Council said the cuts will not impact on any child who has an Education, Health and Care Plan.