Ministers to tackle crisis over school special needs

Labour is preparing to overhaul special educational needs provision in English schools as councils raise the alarm over debts running into hundreds of millions of pounds pushing many of them to the brink of bankruptcy.

- Patrick Butler Matthew Pearce Raphael Boyd

A Guardian analysis has found that a majority of English upper-tier councils have accumulated huge special educational needs spending deficits. At least 12 have forecast accumulated deficits over £100m, running as high as £312m, when the debts have to be settled in a year's time.

Ministers are understood to be preparing to publish a white paper in spring setting out details of what one insider called a "complete recalibration" of the special educational needs and disabilities (Send) system.

The government is believed to be considering changes to Send legislation that councils hope might ease the deficits, alongside reforms to prioritise state school provision and cut council spending in costly private specialist needs schools.

English local authorities are urging ministers to write off a collective £5bn forecast deficit on Send budgets. The deficit - which has been in effect kept off council books by a temporary credit-facility arrangement called an "override" since 2018 - is due to hit council balance sheets on 31 March 2026. The financial shock could push more than 60 councils into insolvency.

As council Send spending has accelerated in recent years, the deficit - the gap between the money the government gives councils for Send and the amount they have been legally obliged to spend on provision - has become a threat to the viability of many town halls on a par with the social care crisis.