SEN children from Gloucestershire placed miles away for school
The furthest child was placed at a school 255 miles away from home, in Northumberland
Last updated 23rd May 2022
More than 300 Gloucestershire children with special educational needs are placed in other education authority areas with some being 256 miles away.
A recent investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism also shows the county had forecasted a £18,540,000 deficit in dedicated school grants funding by the end of 2021/22.
Their investigation shows that, as of December 2021, there were a total of 4,806 children with an education, health and care plan in the county.
And it found that some 311 Gloucestershire children are placed outside the county with the furthest 255.96 miles away in Prudhoe in Northumberland.
Some 53 children are placed over 20 miles away from the county. And there are also 249 children placed in Gloucestershire from outside the county.
Opposition councillors at Gloucestershire County Council say they are incredibly worried about the shortfall in funding and the impact far away placements have on children.
Councillor Linda Cohen (LD, Wotton-under-Edge), Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Education, said sending residents hundreds of miles away to receive an education away from support networks at home is appalling for the individual.
“The overspend in special educational needs is a long running issue and therefore needs a long-term fix. It is incredibly worrying to see reports of this increasing by nearly £5 million in just one year, and this administration will need to explain how it plans to bring this shortfall under control without impacting on the education of our most vulnerable young people.
“Further reports of Gloucestershire residents being sent more than 100 miles away to receive an education, away from support networks at home, are appalling for the individual and terrible value for money for the taxpayer. Until we start investing in enough excellent quality local provision we will never get a handle on our budgets.”
Labour group leader John Bloxsom (L, Rodborough) said special educational needs and disabilities provision needs to be the right support, in the right place and available at the right time.
“We are concerned that there is a vicious spiral of late intervention, low confidence in the system and inefficient resource allocation. Properly planned provision, offered at the right time, would help meet local needs.
“This would reduce county council purchasing of externally provided placements across the country. This is one of the areas in which Gloucestershire’s children’s services – until recently ranked as ‘inadequate’, need to further improve in order to guarantee the right and appropriate local support.”
Gloucestershire County Council’s economy, education and skills cabinet member Philip Robinson (C, Mitcheldean) said there is an increasing need in Gloucestershire and across the UK for special school places.
He said this means children sometimes have to go to schools out of the county or to independent schools when there aren’t places available locally.
“We are committed to making sure all children get a high quality education, close to where they live, which is why we are investing vast sums into the county’s schools to provide more local special school provision,” he said.
“We have already increased the capacity of existing special schools and a new £9.5m special school, Brook Academy, will open in September 2022. We are also proposing to build a new 60-place special school in Stroud so more places are available in the future.”
“We will continue to work closely with the Schools Forum to manage the increasing demands upon the high needs budget, to make sure children and young people continue to get the support they need.”
The number of children and young people requiring support has been rising nationally for over five years.
In January 2018, 1.9% of the school population was in receipt of support from an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP). This had risen to 2.6% by January 2021.
This trend has been replicated in Gloucestershire: 1.9% in January 2018, 2.5% in January 2021 and 2.8% in January 2022, and is based on the most current nationally reported data.
In January 2018, we were supporting 3,290 children with an EHCP. And GCC is currently supporting 5,004.
Additional funding to support this rise in need has been provided by the government, but it has not been able to keep pace with these trends, which has resulted in the build-up of a deficit against the High Needs Block.
The council says this is also replicated nationally, with some local authority deficits exceeding £100m and the cumulative position considered to be over £1 billion nationally.
To help address these issues the council says it is working closely with the Department for Education through the ‘Delivering Better Value in SEND’ programme.
They are launching Inclusion and SEND strategies, which align with the government Green Paper and set out our ambitions to develop a more sustainable local system which is underpinned by early intervention.
The council says it is also developing a range of new specialist provision to meet the rising level of needs in the county, including the opening of Brook Academy Special School in September 2022.
And they are working with the schools forum to manage the financial position in the best way possible while ensuring that children and young people receive the support they need.