A £4.5m overspend by schools for children with special educational needs must be repaid in three years, otherwise Wiltshire Council will have to foot the bill.
The overspend predicted by the end of this year has been blamed on rising demand outstripping supply for children with special educational needs. Independent Special School Fees, Named Pupil Allowances and top-ups for schools were also responsible for the yearly spend coming in over budget.
The provisional Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) allocation this year is £351.646m. The DSG is the main source of funding for pre-16 education. The funding is split into funding for schools, funding for high needs pupils (SEN) and funding for early years providers. Overspending for pupils with special educational needs is expected to be £4.5m in 2019. Now the Schools Forum, made up of representatives from early years, primary and secondary schools, has committed one per cent of the yearly schools budget funding, around £3.26m, to pay off the overspend.
Wiltshire Council has ringfenced £1.3m from its £12m reserves to make up the shortfall and is lobbying the Government to increase funding in this area.
In December the Secretary of State provided £250m of funding to cover extra support for children with special needs. Wiltshire was given £1.128m from the funding pot.
Speaking at the time Education Secretary Damian Hinds said: “We recognise that the high needs budget faces significant pressures and this additional investment will help local councils to manage those pressures, whilst being able to invest to provide more support.”
Speaking about Wiltshire Council’s budget for 2019/20, cabinet member for finance, Cllr Phillip Whitehead said: “The DSG is starting to affect us. Although we cannot control the grant we are responsible for it so any figure that does not get paid back will come off our bottom line reserves in three years time."
“The Schools Forum have agreed to provide one per cent of its total funds, £3.26m, and we have therefore ringfenced £1.3m for the shortfall. We will then try to pull this back in and we are hoping that the Government will look at funding so that we do not have to pay for this out of reserves.”
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