Bucks Council faces £44.3m special education needs deficit

An EHCP is a legal document which sets out the special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) of a child or young person which cannot otherwise be met by their place of education.

As of 1 October last year, a total of 7,087 EHCPs were maintained by the council, with 797 children and young people undergoing needs assessments for the plans.

The 7,087 EHCPs in Bucks marks a rise of 14 per cent compared to the previous year and 112 per cent compared to 10 years ago. In 2018, there were only 3,581 EHCPs.

The increasing demands for special needs support was addressed by Anita Cranmer, the cabinet member for education and children’s services, during Thursday’s budget scrutiny meeting.

She said: “It is very difficult to recruit permanent staff for various reasons and we do have a shortage, nationally, of educational psychologists.”

The cabinet member said the ‘rising number’ of EHCPs not only cost the council, but also schools, which have to provide £6,000 for support in each SEND student’s EHCP.

Schools with a lot of SEND students therefore feel a ‘major pull’ on their budget, which is a ‘very serious problem without a solution’, according to Councillor Cranmer.

The government provides top-up funding for support in mainstream schools through something called the ‘high needs block’.

The block’ is contained in the ‘dedicated schools grant’ councils get annually from the government, but the money is not enough to cover the costs in Buckinghamshire.

Councillor Cranmer said: “That is insufficient to meet the high needs that we have with the numbers of SEND applications. It is causing a large deficit to the council.”

The deficit is forecast to be £19.6 million at the end of 2024/25, according to the council’s 147-page draft budget.

The document says that if deficits are not addressed, an ‘accumulated deficit’ would ‘severely weaken the financial sustainability’ of the council and ‘accelerate’ its potential issuing of a Section 114 notice – an effective declaration of bankruptcy.

A projected £44.3 million ‘deficit reserve position’ is forecast by March 31, 2026, the document also warns.

Councillor Cranmer told the meeting the council had written to education secretary Bridget Phillipson to ask if the way assessments for EHCPs are carried out could be changed.

The cabinet member said potential changes that would ‘make huge sense’ and would ‘help the council greatly’ could include EPs ‘avoiding naming the school the child must attend’, which ‘puts pressure on the authority’.

Besides the strain on the high needs block, the rise in EHCPs is also putting ‘pressure’ on children’s services and transport, the council said.

The increase in demand is also coupled with ‘national and local challenges’ in recruiting and retaining educational psychologists, who carry out needs assessments for EHPCs.

This means children and families are experiencing longer waiting times for EHCPs with the council having paid out multiple families for delays in recent months after they complained to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.