The Government will not enter any more safety valve agreements with councils that are in deficit on their high needs education budgets.
The Department for Education (DfE) made the announcement as it unveiled plans to spend £740m making mainstream schools more accessible for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
It said the funding, part of £6.7bn for education next year announced in the Autumn Budget, would start to pave the way for long-term plans for more children with SEND to attend mainstream school.
Funding allocations will be confirmed in the spring alongside guidance about how councils can use the money.
The DfE confirmed it would ‘continue to work’ with the more than 30 councils with existing safety valve agreements but said the programme had ‘not been effective enough across the board given the scale of the challenge’.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said: ‘For too long, too many children with additional needs haven’t been getting support early enough, with dire consequences when issues escalate.
‘But my commitment to reform – making tangible change to the SEND system to improve experiences for children and families – could not be clearer, and building a system where more children with SEND can attend mainstream schools is central to our plans.’
The chair of the Local Government Association’s children and young people board, Arooj Shah, said: ‘To tackle the challenges within the SEND system, any reform must focus on boosting mainstream inclusion, and we are pleased government has set out steps towards this.
‘However, the rising number of Education, Health and Care Plans means councils are under ever increasing financial pressure, and so it is vital [this] announcement is followed up with urgent action to write off councils’ high needs deficits.’
