Devon County Council's special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) service is predicted to overspend by £88 million this year alone, a figure that highlights the urgency of anticipated national reforms.
The council's cabinet heard that the SEND service would once again overspend as demand from families continues to rise and costs escalate.
The SEND service helps ensure children with learning difficulties or physical disabilities can access education. But the average annual cost of an education, health and care plan (EHCP), which is often required for children to get the support they need, has jumped to more than £19,900 in July from just over £17,000 in March this year.
A crucial factor in the high costs is students being placed in SEND-focused schools. That has prompted a push locally and nationally to increase the number of SEND children attending mainstream settings.
Earlier this year, the government confirmed it would pay off 90 per cent of SEND deficits at local councils across the country with a roughly £5 billion grant. But this relates to deficits accumulated up to the end of the previous financial year, which ended in March 2026. That means the expected overspend this financial year could fall on Devon unless further support from Parliament is forthcoming.
"If the anticipated government support [for this financial year] is not received, a corresponding pressure of up to £79.3 million would fall to the council and would need to be managed through available reserves and other mitigating actions," a report prepared for Devon County Council's cabinet stated.
"Therefore, there remains a significant financial risk that no formal government commitment has been made regarding the continuation of the current support arrangements beyond March 2026.
"Should government policy change, or if support is reduced or withdrawn, the council could face substantially higher costs than currently forecast, resulting in additional pressure on its medium term financial position and reserves."
Devon said it had submitted its SEND reform plan to the Department for Education (DfE) to secure its portion of funding, but had not yet had its approval confirmed.
Once the DfE gives the plan the go-ahead, Devon should receive just over £191 million to help towards eradicating its total SEND deficit, which is technically just over £218 million up to March 2026 once other payments are taken into account.
The council does have an earmarked SEND reserve of nearly £42 million. But with a possible £27 million residual deficit to deal with, plus another nearly £9 million if the government agrees to pay 90 per cent of overspends for this financial year, it quickly gets eroded.
If no government assistance is forthcoming for this financial year, then the SEND reserve would be entirely subsumed by the predicted £88.8 million overspend in this financial year.
Local councils have been calling for SEND funding reforms for years, with mooted transformations prevaricated upon by successive governments.
Critics claim the root cause of persistent overspends at numerous councils across the country relates to a 2014 decision by government to extend SEND support to 25 year olds but without expanding the funding required to support this on the ground.
Council Warns of £88m Special Needs Overspend Without Bailout