Devon County Council is projecting a £38.5 million overspend under its 2023-24 Special Educational Needs & Disabilities (SEND) budget, £7.4 million more than it agreed with the government under its “safety valve” deal.
The deal, agreed earlier this year, commits the county council to £50 million in overall budget cuts, the sale of £13 million of publicly-owned assets and the use of £20 million of its financial reserves.
In return the Department for Education has said it will contribute a total of £95 million over nine years to 2031-32, the length of time the deal will be in place.
However the terms of the deal require the county council to break even on SEND spending within two years despite its persistent overspends.
These have produced a cumulative SEND spending deficit of £163 million which is shortly expected to exceed £200 million.
Special educational needs and disabilities protest at County Hall in February last year
The county council has agreed to limit its SEND overspend to £31.2 million during the current 2024-25 financial year.
However a report presented at a meeting of the county council cabinet on Wednesday confirmed that by the end of July a year-end overspend of £38.5 million was already being forecast.
At the same time a year-end overspend of nearly £6 million was projected across other service areas.
County council finance director Angie Sinclair claimed at the meeting that the position was “better than expected” and added that she did not expect any more of the authority’s financial reserves to be needed to cover year-end deficits.
However the county council is already expecting to use £28 million of its £101 million reserves to cover SEND and other service shortfalls this year, more than a quarter of the total, and it has yet to sell all the assets agreed as part of the “safety valve” deal, including Larkbeare House.
When asked what the consequences of breaching the terms of the deal would be, Angie Sinclair did not explain. She did say that other councils have had similar deals suspended, but insisted that Devon County Council was not in this position.
The government withheld £18 million from five local authorities, including Dorset County Council and Bath & North East Somerset Council, when their “safety valve” deals were suspended in March.
