Cheshire East Council takes next step in ‘Safety Valve’ programme to support sustainable SEND services
18 January 2024
Cheshire East Council has submitted detailed plans to Government, as part of the department for education’s (DfE) Safety Valve programme.
The plans set out how the council proposes to reform services for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and achieve a balanced and sustainable dedicated schools grant budget.
The Safety Valve programme is in place to provide additional support, including financial support, to councils as they work to reform support and services for children with SEND, to improve sustainability and affordability.
There are currently 34 councils participating in the programme and five more including Cheshire East in the negotiation stage with the government.
Cheshire East Council’s plan includes:
- Supporting mainstream schools to be able to support more children and young people with additional needs;
- Expanding specialist provision in the borough for those whose needs cannot be accommodated by mainstream schools;
- Strengthening professional networks across the borough;
- Securing collaboration and financial commitment from partner agencies, including health partners;
- Strengthening the planning and review process for education, health and care plans (EHCPs), so that the council can ensure sufficient resources are available and that plans adapt support as children and young people progress and their needs change;
- Ensuring value through improved oversight and contracting with independent and non-maintained schools; and
- Reviewing and developing the council’s SEND financial strategy.
Many councils across the country are seeing significant pressure on their budgets for SEND services as demand and complexity of need increase and exceed available budget. Funding for council SEND services is provided by Government through the Dedicated School Grant (DSG).
For many councils, this funding has been insufficient to meet local need. It is illegal for councils to spend more than they have in their budget.
The pressures on SEND funding and expenditure across the country are such that the Government has put special arrangements in place whereby councils are instructed to put any DSG deficit into a ‘statutory override’ or a ‘negative reserve’. This takes the deficit off the day-to-day balance sheet and avoids illegality that would otherwise result from the overspend.
However, this is not sustainable in the long term as demand continues to rise, and the ‘negative reserve’ arrangements are only in place until 2026. Also, councils must find money to pay for interest on lending to cover the deficit. The high interest rates seen over the last year have compounded this pressure.
In Cheshire East, for the current financial year 2023/24, the government grant is £56.1 million against a forecast spend of £98 million. Added to the existing deficit, this results in a cumulative deficit position of £89.6 million.
The council’s mitigated forecast anticipates that, by 2030/31, the cumulative deficit position will be £285million. The deficit is currently being managed through the temporary accounting override, but the forecast position is not sustainable. The interest payments alone against this amount of borrowing would be unaffordable.
Councillor Carol Bulman, lead member for children and families at Cheshire East Council, said: “The council is currently in discussion with DfE regarding participation in the Safety Valve programme.
"If the council were unable to access additional support from Government and if the statutory override were not to be extended beyond 31 March 2026, then the risk of triggering a Section 114 notice during its 2026/27 budget-setting process would be highly likely.
“Demand for SEND services in Cheshire East has increased significantly. The borough has a higher number of children with an education, health and care plan (EHCP) than the national average and there has been an 18 per cent increase in the last year alone. We are also supporting children and young people with increasingly complex of needs.
“This increase in numbers and complexity has significantly exceeded the funding received for that purpose.
“This imbalance has developed over the last seven years due to a range of factors, including the basis on which high needs funding is allocated to local authorities. This is not linked to the number EHCPs in place to support young people in the local authority area.
“We must ensure that those children and young people with additional needs are well-supported to thrive and fulfil their potential.
“The council is proposing significant transformation of services to secure additional funding from government and to improve sustainability of these highly valued services.
“We have an ambitious, creative and innovative programme, which will mean changes to the way these services are provided to improve support for children with special education needs and disabilities. This will ensure that children will have access to the right support, at the right time, in the right type of provision. Inclusion is at the heart of our plan. Crucially the seven-year programme will result in us being able to deliver within a balanced budget.
“We know how valued these services are, and how hard it can be for families to secure the best support for their child. We will work with partners, parents, teachers and young people to design, develop and implement changes that safeguard sustainable SEND provision in Cheshire East.
“We need everyone to work together to deliver this plan for sustainable SEND services for our children and young people.”
The council’s Safety Valve plan was submitted to the DfE on Friday 12 January 2024.
Subject to DfE approval, the plan will be published on the DfE website in March and adopted.