The government has warned councils future support to deal with SEND deficits will not be “unlimited”, while pledging to review how it distributes high needs cash.
Councils were expecting this month to find out how an estimated £14 billion blackhole would be dealt with once the government absorbs SEND cost pressures from 2028.
However, schools minister Georgia Gould said further details on plans “to support” councils with “historic and accruing deficits and conditions for accessing such support” will be “later in the settlement process”. No date was given.
She added support provided to councils “will be linked to assurance that they are taking steps to make a reformed, inclusive education system a reality”, alongside the government’s SEND reforms due next month.
Funding documents said that “while we do not expect local authorities to plan on the basis of having to meet deficits in full, any future support will not be unlimited”, adding: “Councils must continue to work to keep deficits as low as possible.”
Advisers for all councils
The government is providing all councils with advisers and handing out “best practice and case studies from previous programmes focussed on efficient spending”, such as the controversial safety valve and delivering better value schemes.
The provisional local government finance settlement document added: “The government will work with local authorities towards a system that enables every child to achieve and thrive; and the financial sustainability of the system will depend on local authorities, along with system partners such as education, health and care services, managing it effectively.
“Therefore, support provided to local authorities will be linked to assurance that they are taking steps to make that system a reality, in conjunction with government confirming the detail of SEND reform.”
Review of high needs formula
It comes as the Department for Education said the use of the national funding formula to allocate high needs cash to councils has been temporarily suspended for 2026-27.
DfE said the difference between money given to councils and the spend “raises questions about aspects of this allocation methodology”.
It will “review the high needs funding system for future years, to ensure that it will properly support the reformed SEND system”. It will use last year’s allocations “with some adjustments”.
Luke Sibieta, of the Institute of Fiscal Studies, said it will mean that high needs funding allocations are “effectively frozen” at their 2025-26 levels.
But he added: “This is definitely not the end of the matter. There is a clear suggestion that the government is intending major reform of the high needs funding system and the government may seek to provide additional money for SEND through different means when it publishes a white paper in the new year.”
Sibieta said funding system reform was “long overdue”, adding: “The existing formula is partly based on what councils spent in 2017 and it was never designed to capture the rapid increases in need we have seen. Reforming the funding system will be a key component of any more general reforms to the SEND system.”
Daniel Kebede, National Education Union general secretary, claimed the review “confirms the high needs NFF is dead” and said a “thorough” review was “necessary”.
Your thoughts