Devon County Council’s projected 2024-25 Special Educational Needs & Disabilities (SEND) overspend has risen to £51.6 million, £20.4 million more than agreed under the terms of a government “safety valve” deal to reduce the council’s ballooning SEND spending deficit.
The latest figures, presented in a report to the county council’s cabinet last week, confirm that the amount by which the council expects to miss the government-set 2024-25 overspend target has increased by a further 40% to £20.4 million.
The excess overspend had already reached £14.7 million in November after doubling between July and September last year.
The county council’s cumulative SEND deficit is now expected to peak at £227 million in 2025-26 before falling over the following six years, missing the targets set by the “safety valve” deal every year.
Devon County Council cumulative SEND deficit 2019-20 to 2031-32 at March 2024 with 2024-25 £20.4 million month eight excess overspend added. Year shown is financial year end e.g. 2020 = 2019-20. 2024-25 onwards are from Devon County Council projections.
County council cabinet member for SEND services, Lois Samuel, defended County Hall’s position at last week’s meeting.
She said she had heard a government minister describe the SEND system as “broken across the country” on the radio earlier that morning.
She added that the council was under pressure from the Department of Education to clear its huge backlog of Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) assessments, which form the basis of additional support for children with SEND.
She said £6 million of the £20.4 million excess overspend was the cost of clearing the backlog, but did not account for the remaining £14.4 million.
She also said that neighbouring councils, including Somerset and Dorset, were carrying SEND deficits that were similar to Devon’s cumulative overspend, but did not comment on whether other councils were also failing to meet their safety valve agreement targets.
What is the “safety valve” deal?
The “safety valve” deal, agreed in March last year, requires the council to rapidly reduce its cumulative SEND spending deficit from the expected 2025-26 peak to zero by 2032.
At the end of last year the county council expected its SEND deficit to reach £195 million by the end of 2024-25 before rising to £207 million in 2025-26.
The agreement with the government also requires the county council to break even on SEND spending by the end of 2025-26 and commits it to £50 million in 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 said it would contribute a total of £95 million over nine years to 2032, the period covered by the deal.
At the same time the deal requires significant progress in improving Devon SEND services provision following numerous poor Ofsted and Care Quality Commission reports over the past six years.
The government has paused the national “safety valve” programme, with no new councils permitted to join, but current agreements, with councils including Devon County Council, remain in place.
At last week’s cabinet meeting county councillor Julian Brazil said that while he accepted the description of a broken national system, the council was “reaping what had been sown”, referring to the council’s long-standing issues with SEND provision.
He queried whether the council would be able to meet the terms of the “safety valve” deal and said he was concerned that the government would withdraw its support which would, he said, lead to it “going under”.
He added: “We would have a deficit of over £200 million. We are bankrupt if that safety valve goes under. What are we going to do to stave off this financial disaster that is coming down the road?”
County council chief executive Donna Manson admitted that despite additional government funding the council’s financial position “quite simply doesn’t add up”.
County finance director Angie Sinclair said that County Hall had agreed to submit a new plan to the Department for Education at the end of January outlining when it expects to break even on SEND services delivery.
She said that there was “no indication at the moment that the Department for Education is pulling out of safety valve”, despite the government announcing that the programme is paused while it reviews SEND funding following a scathing National Audit Office report.
