Councillor to bid for millions more SEND investment

An extra £9.1m over three years is needed for a county's special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) services, according to a councillor.

Andrew Reid, who is responsible for education and SEND at Suffolk County Council, will bid for extra investment at a council cabinet meeting next Wednesday.

It comes after council papers stated extra money was needed as the council's initial investment was "insufficient".

Mr Reid said in papers it was a "high priority" issue for the council to address.

"It is recognised that the scale of this increased resourcing will be very challenging to meet at a time of very high pressure on public service finances but it is necessary to address this high priority for the council and to better support children and young people with SEND in Suffolk," he said.

Andrew Reid will bid for more investment into SEND services during a county council meeting

In February, the council announced a £4.4m investment, £3.4m of which will be recurring in the following years.

If approved, the new bid for investment would see £2.6m extra for the rest of this financial year, £3m in 2025/26, and £3.5m in 2026/27 - with investment for the next two financial years subject to an ongoing review, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

This year’s money would be taken from the council’s reserves and broken down as £1.3m for operational delivery, £800,000 for improvement and transformation, and £500,000 as a contingency to cover sickness absence and productivity assumptions.

'More investment needed'

This comes as the council’s latest useable reserves position, to be presented during the same meeting, shows a £14.7m decrease during 2023/24, from £194.8m to £180.1m.

At the same time, the Dedicated Schools Grant reserve reduced by £26.4m, from negative £27.7m to negative £54.1m.

Another option being proposed would leave current resources as they are, and instead include a temporary £1m investment.

However, this is not recommended as it will mean only 40% of Education, Health and Care Plans (ECHPs) will be delivered within the statutory deadline by the time of the Ofsted/CQC monitoring visit in summer 2025.

The papers also point out that, despite the bid for extra money, more investment will be needed in SEND family services after the 2025/26 financial year.

The extra money is expected to result in more children getting a high-quality EHCP in a timely way and one which is reviewed regularly in order to adapt to children’s needs.