ENGLAND: Local councils facing bankruptcy over SPED costs

Aug 2, 2024, Times: Councils facing bankruptcy over soaring cost of special needs education

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/education/article/councils-facing-bankruptcy-over-soaring-cost-of-special-needs-education-vfdkxwb0m#:~:text=The%20number%20of%20children%20being,support%20in%20a%20mainstream%20school.

The number of children and young people with special educational needs and disability needs has more than doubled in the past decade

The spiralling cost of special needs support in schools is putting councils on the edge of bankruptcy, ministers have warned.

Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, vowed to “grip the problems” in special needs education as independent estimates show increasing demand is leading to a £3.2 billion [$4.1B] black hole in council finances.

The Department for Education has upgraded the threat to the overall financial stability of councils to “critical” and “very likely” as a result of the trend.

The number of children and young people now identified as having special educational needs has more than doubled in the last ten years.

More than 570,000 pupils require support programmes under the law, with a further 1.2 million identified as needing extra support in schools.

Councils have already tripled spending on special educational needs and disability (SEND) from £4 billion [$5B] to £12 billion [$15B] since 2015.

The demand has also seen a rise in the numbers of children in social care, which the government has also said is in “critical” condition amid shortages of placements and carers.

Ministers have only spent a tenth of the £2.6 billion [$3.3B] recommended by the independent review of children’s social care more than two years ago.

Phillipson accused the Conservative government of leaving a “trail of de

vastation across education, and that is no more evident than in the broken SEND system, which is now in desperate need of fixing and is placing intolerable pressure on local authorities”.

A “statutory override” from the government currently keeps the deficit from special needs spending off council budgets but is due to end in March 2026.

Analysis by the County Councils Network suggests that half of councils will cease to be solvent within three years if the financial cliff edge is not extended.

The money is held by a ring-fenced grant handed out by the DfE. In its annual report, the department said that despite substantial cash increases in high-needs funding, costs continue to rise significantly and risk the financial failure of councils. It adds that the cost “undermines efforts to improve educational outcomes for pupils with [special needs] and improve parental confidence in the [special needs] system.”

The number of children being sent by councils to independent special schools, which cost about £59,000 [$75,000] for every pupil each year, has soared by 132 per cent in a decade. The placements are seven times more expensive than additional support in a mainstream school.

Phillipson added: “We are determined to grip the problems in SEND, which is why we have begun to change the way that the Department for Education operates so that SEND is now treated as a major priority, and an important part of mainstream schooling –– but we know that this is only a small step on the road to fixing this damaged system.”

Despite additional funding, educational outcomes for special needs pupils have not improved. At the end of primary school, only 8 per cent of children and young people with the plans achieved the expected level in reading, writing and mathematics, exactly the same rate as five years ago.

Meanwhile, as many as four in ten pupils in special schools are defined as “persistently absent”, meaning that they miss more than 10 per cent of classes.

Sweeping reforms to special needs brought in soon after Michael Gove was replaced as education secretary in 2014 introduced “education health and care plans” for pupils in the most need.

The system was intended to link support across government departments and systems and see them through care until the age of 25 but the lack of capacity in both mainstream and state-funded special schools has left the state system unable to absorb the demand.

The DfE said that it was tackling the issue through a “safety valve” scheme, where it signs deals with local authorities to commit them to eliminate the deficits.