Almost half of all councils in England are in danger of effective bankruptcy within 15 months due in part to the ‘failing’ special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system, MPs warn.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has called on the Government to take urgent action to improve support for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.
According to a new report by the committee, the SEND system is financially ‘unviable’ with the annual gap between funding and forecast costs set to grow to between £2.9bn and £3.9bn in 2027-28.
The report also found ‘massive variation’ in families’ wait times for education, health and care (EHC) plans. For example, 71.5% of EHC plans were written on time in Lambeth, a figure that drops to only 19.2% in neighbouring Southwark.
Chair of the committee, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, said the crisis in SEND support was ‘an emergency that has been allowed to run and run’ and added that the inquiry had found ‘no sense of urgency amongst officials’ to fix it.
He added that it represented an ‘existential financial risk’ for some local authorities.
Responding to the report, Cllr Arooj Shah, chair of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board, urged the Government to set out a ‘comprehensive’ plan for reform.
‘This must include ensuring councils are on a financially stable footing, with high needs deficits written off,’ she said.
‘Otherwise, many councils will face a financial cliff-edge and be faced with having to cut other services to balance budgets through no fault of their own, or their residents.’
Schools Minister Catherine McKinnell commented: 'The system we’ve inherited has been failing families with SEND children for far too long – this is unacceptable and that’s why we set out our Plan for Change to ensure no child is left behind.'
She added: 'We are already making progress by investing £1bn into SEND, £740m for councils to create more specialist places in mainstream schools and through our Curriculum and Assessment Review which will look at barriers that hold children back from the best life chances.'
