Counties divert funds to special educational needs
0County councils are being forced to divert money from their general education budgets to support children with special educational needs, according to the County Councils Network (CCN). The network said that 21 counties have overspent their high-needs block over the past two years, with 22 projecting a further overspend of 5.1% during the current financial year.
Ian Hudspeth, CCN’s spokesman for education and children’s services, said: “There is a growing concern from county leaders that overspends on special educational needs will soon become unsustainable.
Over the past three years alone, our overspends have increased by 63% and are only projected to increase with demand.
It is regrettable that councils are only able to properly provide support to children with special educational needs by instead using funding intended for other pupils.
Quite simply, there needs to be more money in the totality of the system.”
