The government has quietly signed a contract targeting 20% cuts to the number of new education plans for children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) to bring down costs, the Observer can reveal.
Then junior education minister Claire Coutinho – recently promoted to the cabinet as energy secretary– subsequently told MPs that no targets were in place.
The cuts target has emerged as councils across England grapple with huge financial deficits on Send budgets caused by a combination of rising demand and longstanding underfunding. Part of the government’s response has been the launch of the Delivering Better Value in Send programme (DBV), which supports 55 councils to bring down their large Send budget deficits through measures such as early intervention and teaching children with special needs in mainstream schools.
In June 2022, the Department for Education (DfE) signed a £19.5m contract with consultancy firm Newton Europe to design and develop the DBV programme. The deliverables section of the contract states that “it is the intention” of the signatories that the 55 councils’ budget management plans, implemented under the DBV programme, will help achieve “impacts” including “reduced cost pressure … as a result of reduced growth in number of EHCPs [education, health and care plans], targeting at least a 20% reduction in new EHCPs issued”.
The contract states that the “impacts” would be measured by monitoring “EHCP growth rates” and the state of councils’ education budgets.
EHCPs set out the education provision that children with significant needs must receive by law, although cash-strapped councils often fail to meet these requirements.
Recent years have seen rising numbers of new EHCPs being issued for reasons including failings in the children’s mental health system, non-inclusive approaches adopted by results-driven mainstream schools and improved identification of special needs such as autism.
Because EHCPs often require specialist education provision for children, some of which is only available from expensive private special schools, rising EHCP caseloads have meant higher costs for councils, with government funding not keeping pace. As a result, ministers and council bosses have looked for ways to reduce the growth in EHCPs, sparking fears among parents that Send children might be denied the support they need.
Gillian Doherty of campaign group Send Action said: “Aside from potential legal implications, this action will simply push the funding problem down on to mainstream schools, which are already in a state of acute financial and recruitment crisis.
“This is irresponsible behaviour that will seriously undermine inclusion. It will also result in a two-tier system that severely disadvantages disabled children in local authorities with financial difficulties.”
In May, nearly a year after the contract with Newton Europe was signed, Coutinho appeared before MPs on the education select…
2023-09-10 02:00:46
Original from www.theguardian.com
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