The risk that financial pressures will worsen outcomes for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) has been escalated to “top tier” status by the Department for Education.
The prospect of local authorities’ financial challenges “worsening outcomes for the most vulnerable and exacerbating cost pressures” is newly named as a “critical - likely” risk in the DfE’s annual report and accounts for 2023-24.
The DfE’s principal risks are those that, if materialised, “would have significant impact” on departmental objectives, the report explains.
The report comes after the Local Government Association revealed that 85 per cent of councils surveyed are now in the red with their high needs budgets.
“There is a risk that local authorities’ financial challenges impede delivery of essential support services and reform activity across childcare; SEND and alternative provision (AP); and children’s social care (CSC)”, the DfE’s annual report says.
In last year’s annual report, industrial action and disparities in education recovery were seen as top risks for the department.
However these are no longer part of the department’s principal risks and are being “managed at a lower level”, the government confirmed in this year’s report.
High needs costs
The 2023-24 report also recognises the growing pressures facing high needs costs.
The risk that that “pressures continue to outstrip available funding significantly, making the SEND and AP system financially unsustainable” has grown from “likely” to “very likely”, according to the report.
This demand “has been driven in part by rising demand for education health and care plans (EHCPs)”, it adds.
Figures released by the DfE last month showed that the number of EHCPs and requests for assessments saw their biggest rise since the pandemic.
School buildings and cybersecurity remain as principal risks this year, but have remained stable across the financial year, the report adds.
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