School budget missing about £50m despite bailout

The budget shortfall is partly due to expensive special needs placements

A black hole in Bristol’s school budget is predicted to be almost £50m despite a government bailout.

One driver of the funding crisis was specialist independent school placements costing an average of £80,000 per year, on top of transport costs.

Next March, Bristol City Council was expected to have a £47.9m budget deficit in its school budget.

That included an extra cash injection from the Department for Education of £21.5m as part of the Safety Valve programme.

'Really expensive'

A new special needs school is planned to open in Southmead, alongside other new SEND placements in existing schools.

But councillors raised concerns that the new places for SEND pupils might take too long to be created, as the council could “have run out of money” by then.

During the strategy and resources policy committee on 12 August, councillor John Goulandris said: “The timescale slightly worries me because in four or five years we may have run out of money and we may no longer be able to fund it.

"Some of the placement costs are really expensive, they do seem a bit strange.”

Provision for SEND pupils is one of the costliest elements of the schools budget

So far, the new Labour government has not indicated to the council any changes on funding SEND support or the Safety Valve bailout deal, according to Mr Verma.

The deal was agreed earlier this year, shortly before Labour lost control of the council to the Greens in May.

The Safety Valve deal would see the Department for Education give the council £53.7m over seven years to write off its deficit.

The money would be paid in instalments, but the council could pull out of the deal after receiving some of the money, amid concerns about how the deal’s reforms could affect support for SEND children.