The support system for children with special educational needs and disabilities needs to be overhauled nationally, a senior Staffordshire councillor has warned, as the authority is bracing itself for a £55m overspend.
Jonathan Price, cabinet member for education and SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) at Staffordshire County Council, said the national system was “overwhelmed” and “no longer able to respond appropriately” to the needs of children and young people.
Cabinet members met on Wednesday (January 29) to consider the authority’s budget for 2025/16 and the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) the years up to 2029/30. They heard that the council will deliver a balanced budget next year – but financial challenges and uncertainty over future years remained.
One of the ongoing concerns is the council’s overspending in the High Needs Block, which provides support for children and young people with SEND. The Government has put in place a “statutory override”, meaning this deficit remains separate to the council’s other reserves for the time being however.
Councillor Ian Parry, cabinet member for finances and resources said:
“We know the threats we are facing and the challenges ahead of us. Significantly, the Adult Living Wage and National Insurance increase puts an added burden on all employers and we are a significant employer.
“And then we have the High Needs Block. The deficit there could be £55m by the end of this year, and of course growing considerably beyond that.
“It does feel like the Government have stolen our credit card and are loading it with no intention – as far as we can tell – of ensuring that burden does not become put on the shoulder of Staffordshire taxpayers. The implications are not just that that debt sits on our balance sheet but also the cost of that, in terms of cash, can really have a damaging effect on the council moving forward.
“Those are risks and pressures outside of our control. The Spending Review is coming forward and that’s going to be announced in the spring – there’s uncertainty around that and also uncertainty around what happens to that statutory override for the DSG, which is due to be taken off next year.”
Council leader Alan White said last year that the county does not receive enough funding from Government towards the support it provides for more than 7,000 Staffordshire children with an Education, Health and Care Plan. And he urged the county’s MPs to lobby for more support.
Councillor Price said Staffordshire was not alone in facing these challenges. He told fellow cabinet members:
“We have developed a management plan which identifies actions to mitigate some of the High Needs Block overspend.
“The report emphasises the scale and the challenge we’re facing with our funding and resources for SEND and inclusion, which is no different to the majority of councils across the country and so one we can’t address locally without changes nationally. We’re right to be concerned that this spending is the greatest risk currently to our operations as a county council.
“I am assured we are taking actions. However the national system is so overwhelmed by the needs of children, young people and their families, it is no longer able to respond appropriately.
“I have grave concerns the applications being implemented will not address the underlying challenges. And we know the system has to change.
“We have discussed previously there is no easy or simple response to this challenge and it is a multi-faceted challenge. We know we have to provide early intervention and prevention, but we are using the significant majority of funding we have to provide support for those children currently with an Education, Health and Care Plan.
“We know that our mainstream schools need to be even more inclusive. However our resources, not just financial but staffing, training and academic performance targets, space etc, do challenge this.
“This reduces confidence of parents and carers – who rightly want the very best for their children – and we need to reduce our reliance on the independent sector. But until we can achieve some of these earlier challenges, we won’t have enough of our own specialist and mainstream provisions.
“This isn’t a positive picture. But we do need to be clear that left unaddressed, this council will net be able to deliver its statutory responsibilities we hold for our communities across Staffordshire.”
