Pupils with special educational needs in mainstream schools are increasingly being refused additional funding from councils in England unless they have legal documents supporting their claims.
Experts say that increasing financial pressures have made many councils reluctant to make top-up funding available from high-needs budgets – creating a “vicious cycle” between parents and councils over who gets support.
Parents and carers in Buckinghamshire say they have been told that the local authority will no longer accept applications from schools to fund special educational needs provision unless it involves pupils with an approved educational health and care plan (EHCP).
Last year, 576,000 children and young people in England, including nearly one in 19 aged between five and 15, had an EHCP, which is a statutory document that requires an assessment and agreement between parents and local authorities detailing the extra support, funded from the council’s high-needs budget.
But the County Councils Network estimates there are a further 1.2 million children with special educational needs and disabilities who may not qualify for an EHCP and could lose out on funding.
Anita Cranmer, Buckinghamshire’s cabinet member for education and children’s services, said: “Buckinghamshire council continues to consider all new requests on a case by case basis and determine whether support can be made available. However, the use of high needs block (HNB) funding for children without an EHCP is discretionary, with many councils not funding services from the HNB unless children and young people have an EHCP.”
Cranmer said the current financial year had been “particularly challenging”, with a £6m overspend on Send provision. “We are committed to prevention and early intervention and working with education sector leaders to develop new ways to manage the demand pressures we have seen across the sector, including children and young people with higher support needs than we have seen previously.”
The funding crisis jeopardises hopes mainstream state schools could take on more pupils with special needs and relieve pressure on special schools, as well as the budgets of councils paying for places in the private sector.
Luke Sibieta, a research fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said the special needs funding systemwas under severe pressure, with the 60% increase in children with an EHCP outstripping a 40% increase in real-terms funding since 2015.
Sibieta said it was difficult for pupils without EHCPs to receive support, “as the costs must be effectively met from existing school budgets”, which are already overstretched. “This creates a vicious cycle where parents pay for assessments and legal costs to get their child an EHCP, and councils try whatever means necessary to contain demand and costs. And because the process costs so much time and money, there are also inequalities in who gets support.”
Kate Foale, a special educational needs and disabilities (Send) spokesperson for the County Councils Network, said the rise in the number of EHCPs meant local authorities were projected to spend £12bn a year on Send support by 2026, compared with £4bn in 2015.
Foale said: “As councils increasingly have to spend more on pupils with EHCPs, this means the amount of funding they have for other pupils who also have needs has decreased substantially.”
Margaret Mulholland, a Send and inclusion specialist for the Association of School and College Leaders, said there was clear government guidance that local authorities could provide funding for children and young people whether or not they had an EHCP.
She said: “While we understand that some local authorities are under significant pressure, it’s deeply worrying that in some cases the delivery of Send funding appears to be dictated by financial constraints rather than what is appropriate to ensure pupils are given the support they need. There desperately needs to be action at a governmental level to ensure local authorities and schools have the funding required to meet the needs of all children and young people.”
Buckinghamshire is one of 55 local authorities taking part in the Department for Education’s “delivering better value” programme, under which external consultants are analysing Send funding and outcomes.
A spokesperson for the DfE said that high-needs funding in England would reach £10.7bn this year, and added: “For too long, children and young people with Send have been let down by a system that is not working but we are determined to change this.
“Urgent work is already under way to ensure more children are getting earlier and better support to thrive in education through our curriculum and assessment review, Ofsted reforms, and new early years Send training. We will continue to work as quickly as possible to ensure that every child gets the best start in life.”
