The earliest that Wiltshire Council can balance a portion of its funding for children and young people with SEND is 2031, according to a recent report.
The Q2 budget monitoring position forecast a £17.49m overspend, on top of the £28.25m overspend included in a plan agreed with the Department for Education (DfE) which offered the council additional funds.
This comes after the number of children needing SEND support was significantly greater than expected – with 6,354 Education, Health and Care plans (EHCP) in the system at the end of 2024, 660 more than predicated.
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The deficit comes from the High Needs Block (HNB), which is part of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) that primarily supports pupils with SEND.
In March 2024, Wiltshire Council signed a Safety Valve agreement with the DfE.
This is a formal agreement which offers councils additional funds to help with their historic deficits.
In return, the council agrees to deliver a plan to return their DSG to an “in-year” balanced position by the end of the period of the plan.
However, a report presented at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, January 21, revealed that the increased EHCP demand in the county has put the plan “far enough off track that significant changes are required”.
The report states: “It is now thought that the earliest a balanced position is achievable, without compromising the support given to the children and young people with SEND, is April 2031 (seven years from the start of the plan) instead of April 2029 as originally forecast.”
When asked about plans to manage the deficit, Cllr Mayes said: “Everything that we are doing is about helping us get the system into a better place.
“That really is driven by working with schools to get the mainstream provision right.”
She also noted that there was ongoing work to “get in there early” with struggling families to prevent behavioural issues escalating to the need for an EHCP.
The leader of Wiltshire Council, Cllr Richard Clewer, added that the current approach to SEND had become “increasingly complex and increasingly expensive” whilst “drifting away from inclusion”.
Members also heard how the level of demand in early years remains a concern, with the most common age for which EHCPs are requested being 3 years old.
The cabinet voted to approve the council seeking agreement for the revised plan from the DfE.
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The new proposals will follow the principles set out in the original plan, which included investing to save in future years and improving support for children and young people with additional needs across the system but doing it over seven years rather than five.
In a statement released after the meeting, cabinet member for SEND Cllr Jane Davies said: “We place the needs of our children and young people at the heart of everything we do.
“We do this in the context of ever rising demands and overspend on budgets in this area.
“We have a very good and solid plan on how we can bring this spending into an in-year balanced position but realistically we know this will be over seven not five years.
“Our approach to this vital work means we won’t compromise the quality of support provided.”
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