‘This is becoming the biggest issue for councils’
The lack of money to educate special needs children could bankrupt councils if government does not make reform, says West Northants education boss
By Sarah Ward
A senior officer at West Northants Council has said the special educational needs budget crisis is the biggest problem facing local authorities and could bankrupt many authorities unless the government steps in.
Recent research by a council network group has revealed that there is a £4bn national deficit in special needs budgets, and the figure was discussed at the meeting of the West Northants Schools forum on Tuesday, with assistant director of education Ben Pearson, saying the situation was ‘scary’.
The authority’s overall schools budget is facing a £13m deficit this year, with a huge overspend in the high needs budget due to increased places costs and a growing number of children needing specialist education. (£18m will be spent this financial year on educating SEN children living in the West of the county in independent schools.)
He told the forum, which is made up of senior teachers and council officers, that the current government plan to put the SEN deficit on the balance sheet of local authorities (there is currently a statutory override which prevents this), could lead to them going bust:
He said:
“When you look at it it’s really scary. £4bn overspend for councils at the minute around SEN and from the chief executive of the council and the elected members, this is becoming the biggest issue for councils at the moment, not just from a financial point of view but that understanding of, ‘if we don't get this right for children who are vulnerable with additional needs now, we set those children up for a life where they will struggle’.
“So we know we’ve got to invest now. The statutory override is petrifying. That will bankrupt councils if it is removed and 25, 30 per cent of councils would go bust overnight.”
He added:
“No local system can get out of this safely and appropriately. What we are not going to do is just start cutting provision for our most vulnerable to balance the books.”
The authority will have a meeting in coming weeks with a Department for Education official about how to put together a budget recovery plan. It has taken on an interim officer to help come up with that plan.
Ben Pearson pointed to a report by the ISOS Partnership (which was commissioned by the Local Government Association) which said the only way out of the issue would be policy and top down reform. The report found that the major reforms introduced in 2014 by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition had not been successful.
To the frustration of parents, Labour’s new education secretary Bridget Phillipson has asked for patience while the government comes up with reforms to the SEN system. She has said there is no silver bullet to the problem.
There have been warnings for many years from Northants council officers about the issue. Back in May 2020, senior education officer at the county council Gwyn Botterill said ‘perfect storm’ was brewing as local special school places had run out, but the need was growing.
Since then the budget for high needs has grown year on year, with money taken out of the general schools budget to plug the ever growing deficit in the funding. The West and North have been opening new specialist schools and providing many more local places, but demand is outstripping supply.
Local families in the West and North of the county have been waiting for well over the statutory time limit of 20 weeks for educational health and care plans for their children, with many protests outside the council chambers. Inside the chamber families have told heartbreaking stories of how their child has been affected by not being able to access the education they are entitled to. In response many have successfully taken the unitaries to tribunal (Ben Pearson said the number continues to grow) and have been removing their children out of state education in large numbers.
Ben Pearson’s comments come days after the director of children’s services in the North of the county, Charisse Monero, declared a crisis and said rapid change would be needed. She said she is hosting a summit about the growing numbers of children who are being removed from school to be taught by families at home.
I think if you look at the money spent on educating children with SEN, it’s a small percentage of the council budget. Supporting children with suitable education isn’t sending councils bust. Under funding and mismanagement of funds is. This is just attention grabbing headline, and sensationalism. Our local authority will buy private properties and land to sell at a loss, but won’t support our most vulnerable young people with an education and they get blamed.
The situation needs managing.
What we are seeing are schools being nominated the funding but offering a child 1hr a day at reception. Is this legal? Is this discriminatory?
This has a monumantal negative affect on children and families who get into financial straits as they cannot work. Where is the £6000/term funds given for these children? What are Ofsted doing about this?
If a child is nominated a 1:3 ratio instead of a 1:1 there would be results in favour of the child.
Also, the routines need to be nature based and not classroomed with organised outings to local parks daily. This would give these children the wellbeing, calmness and sensory a classroom does not give them.
We had 40 SEND children with only 2 given funding for 1:1 last year. We achieved incredible results with all of these children without funding given. However, after the press were involved we magically got funding for 6 more children in two weeks despite many previous attempts for support.
A solid strategy and not always money is the answer and people in charge of the money that KNOW and CARE enough to not let this carry on a moment longer is what is needed.