Bristol faces £58m school deficit due to SEND demand

City Hall leaders have three years to balance the books in its schools grant budget

A council's schools budget could face a £58m black hole in less than a year due to rising demand for special needs education.

The possibility of reaching a £58,170,000 deficit by March 2024 was revealed in a report to Bristol City Council's schools forum.

It also explained, without taking action to cut costs, the deficit could reach £127m by 2028.

Green Councillor Tony Dyer said many councils were facing the same problems.

"If the government does not continue its [statutory instrument] provision, there may be some major problems right across the country," he said.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the number of parents in Bristol requesting an education health and care needs assessment has risen dramatically over the past few years.

In 2019, the council received 626 requests, rising to 728 in 2020, 850 in 2021 and 1,001 in 2022.

'Demonstrate financial stability'

Vanessa Wilson, director of children and education transformation, told councillors this was partly due to better diagnostics than in the past.

"We've also had an increase in our population" she said.

"The funding from central government has not matched the needs that we're all seeing."

The report to the schools forum said work is being done "to explore options to bring school finance back to sustainable footing".

"All schools forecasting a deficit have been notified of the need to produce a robust plan to demonstrate and secure their long-term financial sustainability," it said.

City Hall leaders have just three years to balance the books in the dedicated schools grant budget, as councils are normally banned from spending more than budgeted for and carrying deficits.

But the government has given councils special permission until March 2026.

The council will run a public consultation about potential changes to the education budget for six weeks, in October.

The cabinet is then expected to sign off the final changes in January next year.