Norfolk joins call for urgent reform to support children with SEND

Norfolk County Council is calling on the government to urgently reform education and funding for children with special educational needs and disabilities, amid national pressures on a "broken system."

A report to Norfolk County Council's Cabinet reveals that despite significant investment and more than 2,000 extra specialist places being developed, the council, schools and academies are struggling to meet unprecedented demand and the ring-fenced schools' budget, the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), is continuing to overspend.

The forecast cumulative deficit on the DSG is now estimated to be £115m by March 2025.

Cllr Andrew Jamieson, Deputy Leader of Norfolk County Council, said: "There is now national recognition that the education system for children with SEND is broken. It is not delivering the best outcomes for children and the current budget being set by the government is totally insufficient to meet the needs of our children.

"The DSG is a ring-fenced budget that we administer on behalf of the government and continued underfunding by government has meant that it cannot meet growing demand. This has created a significant debt that should sit with the government and not councils - it is not of our making and needs to be written off by government.

"As a council we've invested £120m in additional places and a further £30m as part of the £100m LFI programme with the DfE. We are doing everything we can to try to develop a more inclusive system and to support children, parents, and schools but we are working within a flawed system that needs urgent reform.

"I have already written to the new Secretary of State to offer to work alongside the government to develop a new inclusive system and, as a council, we will continue to lobby for action."

The council's Local First Inclusion programme focuses on providing help to children and families earlier, with additional support and investment in mainstream schools so that more children can stay in their local school, alongside their friends and siblings.

At the same time, the programme is seeing a significant increase in investment in specialist places, to support those with the highest needs.

The report to Cabinet recommends increasing the budgeted top-up funding for 2024-25 (known as Element 3 funding) to support children in mainstream schools, from the £30m agreed in January to £35m. That figure has increased from £9m in 2020/21. Although an increase in budget for the year, it represents a three percent drop on the actual spend for 2023-24, when the budget was £12m overspent. The forecast cumulative deficit on the dedicated schools grant (the ringfenced schools' budget) is now estimated to be £115m by March 2025.

Cabinet is also being asked to continue to lobby government for reform and for funding to support a more inclusive education system.

It follows calls from the Couty Council's Network and Local Government Association for the government to write-off the overspend on SEND, with the cumulative deficit nationally having risen from £300 million in 2018-19 to £3.16 billion.

In a jointly commissioned report, the two organisations highlight that greater identification of SEND is not leading to better outcomes for children and recommends the government invests in more support in mainstream schools.

Norfolk County Council wants children and families to get the help they need as early as possible in mainstream schools and early years settings, wherever possible. It has already developed extra support for schools through new school and community teams and has significantly increased top-up funding to support children with higher needs. It has also been building more specialist places in mainstream schools, at specialist resource bases.

The council is one of 35 councils in a "Safety Valve" agreement with the Department for Education (DfE). This brings additional investment on the condition that the council works to balance the overspend on the schools' budget. Like several other councils, Norfolk is currently renegotiating the terms of the deal with the DfE due to ongoing high pressures.

Cllr Penny Carpenter, Cabinet Member for Children's Services at Norfolk County Council, said: "We, together with Norfolk's schools and Norfolk's parents, want the very best for our children but we are working in a national system that is underfunded and difficult to navigate for families. The Secretary of State herself has acknowledged that the system is broken.

"We want children to be able to get the right help, in the right place to meet their needs and for most children that should be in their mainstream school. We know schools are under pressure, which is why have been providing more support and are developing new ways of working with them, but our strategy will take time to deliver.

"We will continue to lobby the government and do what we can to support schools, families and specifically children. We all want the same thing - for our children to flourish - but the current system is set up to fail some of our most vulnerable children."

Cabinet will meet at 10am on Monday 2 September to discuss the current progress of the Local First Inclusion programme and consider the recommendations for budget allocations. You can watch the meeting, live or afterwards, and read the reports online.