Send deficits Councils at risk of financial collapse as costs rise

The alarming details of the special educational needs financial crisis in English local authorities are buried deep in internal council papers but the reality of the situation is crystal clear to those close to it. "It's a ticking timebomb," one town hall boss told the Guardian. "It's what keeps me awake at night."

- Patrick Butler

Budget reports, school forum minutes and financial planning documents help tell the story of a system woefully unprepared for the explosion in numbers of children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) in recent years, chronically underfunded to meet the growing demand, and now struggling to keep afloat.

Between 60 and 70 councils are at risk of effective bankruptcy next March as a result of the Send crisis, a catastrophe for town halls but also a powerful signifier of a deeper problem: a neglected and dysfunctional special educational needs system that is ruinously expensive, poorly managed and too often failing children and parents.

Labour now faces a huge, complex social policy challenge: reforming the Send system is not only urgent and politically fraught but likely to cost several billions at a time when budgets are tight and ministers face competing demands to fix the NHS and social care.