Devon schools overspend two-thirds over target at £51 million

Devon County Council’s schools budget is set to overspend by £51 million in one year alone as it addresses challenges in its special needs system.

The county had been targeting a £31 million overspend in its education budget the financial year ending in April, but now believes the overshoot will be about two-thirds higher at more than £51 million.
That will take its cumulative deficit to £132 million instead of a targeted £111 million.
The main pressure is from its special educational needs and disabilities (Send) service as rising numbers of children in Devon require additional support in school or are having to access specialist provision.
Cllr Lois Samuel (Conservative, Okehampton Rural), cabinet member for children’s Send improvement, said the government had stated it believed the Send system was “broken”.
“I’m proposing that the council seeks further engagement with the Government through an ongoing review of Sen provision,” she told Devon County Council’s cabinet meeting this week.
She added that she welcomed the government’s review of the Send system.
The extra overspend in Devon’s schools could put pressure on the council because of a grant funding deal it secured last year from Westminster.
The county was awarded £95 million from the Safety Valve scheme, to be paid in tranches over nine years, in return for the county council contributing towards its cumulative deficit and for making improvements and savings within its Send provision.
Cllr Samuel said the council had made £12 million in savings within Send this financial year, out of the £15 million target it had agreed with the Department for Education (DfE) as part of its Safety Valve deal.
But somewhat ironically, its efforts to reduce the number of overdue education, health and care plans, known as EHCPs, is putting up its costs.
The total number of EHCPs in November in Devon was 9,754, and is set to hit 9,833 this month. That’s 461 more than had been targeted in its Safety Valve deal.
Cllr Samuel said the EHCP backlog had dropped to around 620 from 900 in recent months, but that each of these new plans was costing the authority £17,000 per year.
However, the council now has a daily panel of senior officers who review Send-related spending, and this has reviewed more than £7 million of expenditure decisions since starting in October.
Cllr Caroline Leaver (Liberal Democrat, Barnstaple South), acknowledged progress in the Send provision.
“But why has it taken so long to put that daily panel that reviews expenditure in place,” she asked.
“It seems being in control of the overspend and dealing with it is incumbent upon this administration.”
Cllr Carol Whitton (Labour, St David’s and Haven Banks) called the financial update “familiar territory”.
“I think we are all aware that the Send provision in Devon and the country is not as it should be,” she said.
“Demand is increasing and it seems very much to be a crisis situation.”
Councillor Julian Brazil (Liberal Democrat, Kingsbridge) said while he accepted Government comments about the Send system being broken, he thought Devon was partly responsible for the situation it found itself in.
“This council is reaping what was sowed through years of inaction and complacency, so it is no wonder we are in such an awkward position,” he said.
“We are worse than other councils and to try and hide that under the guise of everyone being in a bit of a pickle is disingenuous.”
The council said it had regular meetings with the DfE about its Safety Valve deal and that there was “no indication the DfE would be pulling out” of the deal, even though it has stated it will not sign new ones.
Donna Manson, the council’s chief executive, said that the additional annual funding from Safety Valve “quite simply doesn’t add up” when contextualised against the county’s Send demand.
“It’s important to say if you take the improvement journey [of our Send provision] and the financial agreement [with the DfE], they don’t work,” she said
“And on that basis, I say to all members and publicly, that we do need your support to re-engage on this matter as we have to decide if we continue to push on with the improvement journey, as that will cost more money, which puts us in a challenging situation.”