Deaf children in Cornwall are facing a cut to vital educational support despite education money being protected by the Government, a charity has said.

The National Deaf Children's Society (NDCS) has accused Cornwall Council of making cuts of £86,000 to the budget for educational support for deaf children and cutting two Teacher of the Deaf posts.

The authority has robustly denied the claim and said the two teaching posts were not deliberately cut, but have actually been vacant since January last year.

However, the NDCS says that with reduced support, the county's deaf children are now at risk of not developing communications skills and failing at school.

Susan Daniels, Chief Executive of the charity, said the council would not initially reveal whether cuts had been made to the service and a Freedom of Information request had to be issued.

"The support being taken away is not an optional extra, it is absolutely crucial for deaf children's learning and development, particularly as they are already underachieving compared to other children."

A spokeswoman for Cornwall Council said: "The hearing support team has actually been carrying two vacancies since January 2010 and it is these posts which will not now be filled."