Ministers insist plans to absorb council Send debts won't hit school budgets

The government has hit back at claims that its plans to include the cost of supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) in wider education spending could lead to less money for schools.

The Department for Education (DfE) said projections from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) were "incorrect" and did not take into account the reforms it will set out in the new year.

The government said it would take all Send spending away from local authorities by 2028 - a forecasted £6bn of extra costs.

Councils welcomed the change, saying rising costs had made Send spending "unsustainable", but teaching unions echoed the OBR's warning of an impact on school spending.

Local authorities currently receive a ring-fenced grant from the DfE to pay for special needs support, known as the dedicated schools grant.

But rising demand has led to local councils spending billions more overall on Send than they get from central government.

The number of young people with council-funded education, health and care plans (EHCPs), which set out the support they are entitled to, has doubled across England since 2016.

Since 2020, those Send debts have been kept off local authority books by a "statutory override" – which had been extended to 2027-28. Without it, many councils have warned they face rising costs and even bankruptcy.

The OBR has forecast that councils will have cumulative deficits of £14bn by the end of 2027-28, when the statutory override expires. It is not clear how much responsibility for paying this back will stay with councils.

It was announced in Wednesday's Budget that the full cost of Send provision will be absorbed within departmental budgets by 2028-29, which means the future cost pressures of the Send system will sit on the government's books, rather than councils'.

But the OBR warned that no savings have been identified yet to offset the estimated £6bn of costs they said this move will create.

If that money had to be taken from existing school budgets, it said it would lead to a 4.9% fall in mainstream school spending per pupil, rather than the 0.5% increase planned by government.

But the DfE strongly refuted those predictions, with a spokesperson saying they "do not account for the much-needed Send reforms this government will bring forward".

"We inherited a Send system on its knees and our changes will make sure children get support at the earliest stage, while bringing about financial sustainability for councils," they added.

Full plans for reforms to the Send system are due to be laid out early next year.

Until then, it is unclear how the government will manage the struggle between rising Send needs and ballooning costs.

Cllr Matthew Hicks, chair of the County Councils Network, said the government's commitment on Send spending was a "positive step in limiting councils' exposure to unsustainable expenditure", but said there was still uncertainty over what would happen to council Send debts accrued before 2028.

The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) general secretary Pepe Di'Iasio said any fall in school spending "would clearly have a catastrophic impact on educational provision".

"It is imperative that the government sets out how it intends to address this issue as a matter of urgency," he added.

The National Education Union (NEU) has said it will consider strike action if the concerns around school funding are not addressed, with an executive meeting on Saturday planned to "decide next steps".

Mum Aimee Bradley, who has three autistic children and runs the parent campaign group Send Sanctuary UK, says parents are worried about the lack of detail in the Budget on Send.

"If they're planning major changes to the Send system, then money needs to be put into it -but as of yesterday's Budget, all we have is extremely vague detail," she says.

"People need answers, and parents, myself included, are left worried."