Special educational needs overspend saddles Surrey with £80 million deficit

Surrey County Council expects to have accrued an £80.2 million deficit next year – rising to £104 million the year after – due to overspending on special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

The overspend for the 2020/21 year alone is forecast to be £31.4m.

The council hopes that this can be contained to £24m, but with demand for SEND services in Surrey currently growing by 11%, this is ambitious.

It is not alone in facing a hefty deficit in this area. Of the 151 councils responsible for education in England, 132 overspent in SEND education last year, according to The Observer. Only nine did not record an overspend, while the remaining 10 had no available data.

Julie Iles, Surrey County Council (SCC) cabinet member for all-age learning, said: “SEND funding is not working around the country; demand is increasing and it needs a systemic change.

“We are fiercely lobbying government to bring forward a proper, long-term funding solution for SEN.”

A Department for Education publication in July said: “High needs funding is increasing by a further £730m, or 10%, in 2021-22. This vital extra resource will help local authorities to manage their cost pressures in this area.” This only equates to an extra £15m for Surrey.

Last year there was a combined funding gap of £643m across English councils’ high needs blocks, the portion of the Department for Education grant that is assigned to fund help with SEND such as autism.

Judith Blake, chair of the Local Government Association’s children and young people board, said: “Funding hasn’t kept pace with the increase in demand, resulting in many councils running significant deficits on their high needs blocks.

“We are concerned councils will not be able to meet their statutory duties to support children with SEND unless additional money is made available.”

Why does Surrey have so many pupils with Education, Health and Care plans?

Surrey has a relatively high number of children with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), which identify what additional support is needed – 10,644 as of November.

In 2019/20, SCC overspent £48.6m on the high needs block, although this was partly mitigated by raiding other parts of the schools grant – but this is no longer permitted by the government.

Surrey’s high needs block shortfall is higher than average; it makes up 7.6% of England’s total, despite the council being just 0.76% of the total number of councils that overspent in this area.

Cllr Iles said: “There’s a number of contributing factors for why we have a large instance of EHCPs – including but not limited to inconsistent practice in the past and a high level of parent expectation in thinking a diagnosis would provide a panacea, schools believing an EHCP was needed to be able to support inclusivity and insufficient use of early interventions at early years stage.

“About one third of diagnoses in Surrey have Autistic Spectrum Disorder as the main presentation of SEN and we have a large number of intelligent parents, which may be linked – we’re doing some work with South Bank University to understand that some more.”

Surrey County Council proposes withdrawing additional funding for special educational needs

SCC is required to submit a recovery plan as to how it will bring their high needs block spend back in balance.

This has to be agreed with the Schools Forum, a statutory body that includes headteachers, governors and teaching unions, which must be consulted on the allocation of the government’s schools grant.

The Schools Forum has over the last month been consulted on an SCC proposal to change additional funding for special educational needs.

This has provoked rage among campaigners, though Surrey’s cabinet member says children would not be affected by the change.

The plan is to withdraw help currently received by some mainstream schools towards paying the first £6,000 for each pupil with SEN, and would affect those with a relatively high proportion of children with EHCPs.

Nationally, schools pay for the first £6,000 of each child’s special educational needs provision out of their notional SEN budget, and for most schools, this is enough.

But some find they have many more children with EHCPs than expected. At the moment where this is the case, it can ask the council for extra money to help towards this first £6,000 per pupil.

It is proposed that in Surrey this help is taken away. Currently 67 primary schools and two secondaries receive this support, at a cost of just over £1 million to SCC.

Councillors should make a decision on any change by January 21, and if agreed it would take effect from the start of April 2021.

Surrey Heath Liberal Democrats campaigned against the proposals, which they say would affect six schools in Surrey Heath – Lightwater Village and Lakeside primaries, Heather Ridge, Valley End CofE and Windlesham Village infants, and Gordon’s School in West End. The latter two schools were asked for comment but did not respond.

Lib Dem spokesperson Richard Wilson said: “The annual spending on additional SEN funding in Surrey is currently just over £1m – a tiny amount compared with the council’s overall spending.

“By trying to balance their budget on the backs of those who are most vulnerable but least able to speak up for themselves, SCC are risking the futures of children who should be their top priority.”

Cllr Iles said rather than being an attempt at saving – £1m is 0.6% of the £175m high needs block anticipated for 2021/22 – it is an attempt to ‘update an outdated formula to make sure funding goes to where it is needed’.

The council is concerned how many schools receive the additional funding despite having a budget surplus. They think the extra money available might even be an incentive to apply for EHCPs where they may not be needed.

The consultation document reads: “There are three primary schools for which additional SEN funding is equivalent to more than 5% of the budget share.

“There have been concerns that the current basis of distribution provides an incentive to some schools to apply for EHCPs where they may not be necessary or appropriate, and that it does not target the schools with the highest needs or benefit the most inclusive schools.”

Cllr Iles said: “It’s supposed to be for schools who can demonstrate that first £6,000 is insufficient. If the schools that need the additional funding are getting it, why have the majority of those schools got a surplus in their budget?

“It’s not reaching the targeted schools it needs to. One has a surplus as high as a £1m.”

If schools can demonstrate that taking away the money would have an ‘unavoidable detrimental impact on pupils in protected groups under the Equalities Act’, the council said a transition period would be considered between April and September.

Woking mother Harriet Williamson is wary and thinks the plan would discourage schools from taking SEND pupils.

She has a child with an EHCP, but not at a school that would be affected by the proposals. She said: “This puts the onus on the already extremely stretched schools to prove that the lack of funding affects the children, i.e. the children who most need the extra help have to suffer in order to demonstrate they need that additional support.

“The extra work might discourage mainstream schools from taking children with SEN.”

In addition, if a child with an EHCP needs help costing more than £6,000, the school can ask for top-up funding, so for SCC to pay the amount in excess of £6,000. This costs the council £19.2 million. Cllr Iles said no changes to this are proposed.

So how does the council plan to make savings in the area of SEND?

It is asking the education secretary for permission to spend more of its schools budget on SEN. Currently the proportion is limited. Since April this year, councils are not allowed to top up their high needs block by dipping into any other pot of money, so they must find savings.

The council has appealed to the education secretary to permit them to transfer 0.5% of the general schools part of the grant (£3.4m) next year.

The proposed transfer was rejected by the Schools Forum, so now SCC is asking Gavin Williamson to overturn their decision.

But the main plan to make savings is through a SEND transformation. As part of this, SCC’s cabinet has committed £69 million of capital investment to deliver an additional 1,100 special school places – 213 in the academic year 2021-2022.

It is hoped this will reduce day-to-day costs, firstly by being able to pay for fewer placements at more expensive independent schools, and secondly by avoiding transporting pupils outside of the county to go to school.

SCC has also this year stopped providing free school transport for under-fives and over-16s, where it is not obliged by law to do so.