Cllr Anntoinette Bramble, Chair of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board, responds to the announcement by the Department for Education of funding to support children with special educational needs and disabilities.
“The LGA has worked hard to raise concerns around the huge financial pressures on councils and schools to meet the growing demand for support for children with special educational needs and disabilities. We are pleased the Government has listened to our concerns and will provide an emergency injection of desperately-needed money to tackle this crisis.
“While the funding will help, it will only partially address the wider £472 million deficit councils are facing providing SEND support this year, which could grow to more than £800 million in 2019/20.
“Parents rightly expect and aspire to see that their child has the best possible education and support, and councils have done all they can to achieve this. However councils are reaching the point where the money is simply not there to keep up with demand, pushing support for children with SEND to a tipping point.
“We want to work with government to tackle this issue, and it is also good the Department for Education has accepted our call for a review of SEND support, in particular to incentivise mainstream schools to admit and support children with SEND.”
Bright Futures
Helping children and young people to fulfil their potential is a key ambition of all councils, but our children’s services are under increasing pressure.
Bright Futures is our call for fully funded children's services.