(UK) Suffolk: $337M deficit due to "increased spending on special education"
- The end of childhood
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Jan 12, 2026, BBC News: Special education leading to £250m [$337M] deficit by 2028
Suffolk's education budget is heading for a £250m [$337M] deficit by 2028 due to increased spending on special education, according to the Conservative-run county council.
The dedicated schools grant (DSG) is given to all local education authorities by central government to pay for education and the special educational needs and disabilities (Send).
Richard Smith, cabinet member for finance at Suffolk County Council, said the figure in the latest council budget report was "one of the issues that keeps me up at night".
The Labour government is due to reform the Send system which it said aimed to create "financial sustainability for councils".
In 2023, the council said it had 7,200 children who had an education, health and care plan (EHCP), which meant they had a statutory right to a specialist education.
Other councils across the East of England are facing a similar situation, BBC research has found.
Successive governments have said the DSG deficit does not need to be added to council budget sheets under what is known as a statutory override.
Smith, who is also Suffolk County Council's deputy leader, said the deficit was one of the "most serious financial challenges facing the council".
"Demand for specialist education support has grown rapidly, but government funding hasn't kept up," he said.
"The council still has to cover the interest of the debt even if they do not have the overspend on their books."
The cost of servicing that debt is estimated to reach £8.9m [$12M] in 2026-27, which Smith said was money "we can't use to fund other local services".
Suffolk has a mixture of special schools, and Send hubs in mainstream schools.
Four of the 16 specialist schools in Suffolk are run by the Unity Schools Partnership, including the Churchill Special Free School in Haverhill, which has been rated outstanding by Ofsted school inspectors.
The children there have social and emotional needs and are offered a GCSE curriculum and life skills. . . .
In all the Unity Partnership has 3,500 SEND pupils across its 40 schools in Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk and Romford in east London.
Families failed for 'too long'
The government is due to publish a white paper in the spring on how it plans to manage Send and its funding going forward.
What will happen to council overspends is not clear.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: "For too long, families have been failed by the Send system... with parents across the country forced to fight for every scrap of support and rising demand meaning children's needs are spiralling to crisis point.
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