Mounting council deficits on special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) spending will keep growing without new government education reforms, a leading director of children’s services has warned.
Rachael Wardell, the new president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS), said it was a “true scandal” that lots of money was being spent without getting better outcomes for children with SEND.
She is taking on this leading role in local government at a time when looming high needs spending deficits threaten to bankrupt councils and with ministers being pressed to find an urgent solution.
These deficits, fuelled by education spending on pupils with SEND, are projected to rise to £5 billion next year.
A statutory override is in place that allows councils to keep these debts off their books, but this ends in March 2026.
A recent survey suggests more than half of councils could face having to declare effective bankruptcy if the override were not in place.
Call to write off debts
Local government and headteachers’ leaders have been calling for the government to write off these debts.
Ms Wardell has suggested that the government is likely to extend the statutory override in the short term, rather than move it back into central government debt or leave councils at risk.
But she warned that without the government introducing education reforms, councils’ SEND deficits are likely to keep increasing.
In an interview with Tes ahead of her becoming ADCS president today, she said: “I think what needs to happen is that central government needs to recognise that this is a central government-funded system that has been inadequately funded.
“The debt has been put onto the balance sheets of local authorities, but it really relates to a lack of funding in a centrally funded system. So the debt should return to the national debt.”
However, she thinks a more likely scenario in the short term is that the statutory override will be extended beyond March of next year.
She added: “I’m purely speculating at this stage, but it seems likely only because the two alternatives seem impossible.
“It can’t be possible to let local authorities everywhere collapse...there is too much important work in local government that can’t be allowed to disappear under that particular budget pressure.
“But it also does seem unlikely that the Treasury would feel OK about letting such a significant debt back on its books.”
Ms Wardell, who is the executive director for children, families and lifelong learning at Surrey County Council, warned: “One thing is clear, that the debt, wherever it’s held, will only grow for as long as the system itself remains unreformed.
“What will be crucial, I think, is to show how a reformed system can deliver better experiences and outcomes for children, and ideally at a lower cost.
“The true scandal at the moment is that we’re spending a lot of money and not getting better outcomes for children.”
Lack of specialist places in mainstream
There have been concerns that council spending on SEND has been driven by a lack of specialist places in special and mainstream state schools.
A Tes analysis in March revealed that one in five councils has seen the amount spent on paying for private school places for pupils with SEND double in just four years.
The overall cost of SEND spending on private schools is expected to rise to around £2.6 to £2.7 billion next year, according to experts.
The government has made promoting inclusion in mainstream schools a key focus of its planned SEND reforms.
Ms Wardell welcomed this and said that it could help to bring down costs if more pupils with SEND are educated in mainstream schools.
“We certainly see a large number of children now in specialist provision who shouldn’t be in specialist provision and that can shove everybody into a higher tariff setting than they need to be in,” she said.
SEND reform
Part of the challenge in ensuring mainstream schools are inclusive to pupils with SEND, she suggested, is because a number of support staff roles are no longer affordable for schools, including teaching and learning assistants, emotional literacy support assistants and family support workers.
Ms Wardell added: “We don’t have a system that is leading to good experiences or outcomes for children.
“I don’t think we think that’s the school’s fault, and I don’t think we think that that’s the local authorities’ fault - and we certainly don’t think it’s the children’s fault.
“I think, collectively, children’s experiences and outcomes are not good enough, and so we need to find a way to resolve that, which I think is going to require widespread reform.”
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