Derbyshire councillor feels ‘£10.8m’ funding increase for special needs youngsters is a ‘drop in the ocean’

The county council noted and approved the Government’s High Needs Block Funding Settlement for the 2025-26 financial year for the authority at a meeting on March 13th with an allocation of £127.576m which means an increase of £10.822m by comparison with 2024-25 which equates to 9.3 per cent of last year’s figure.

But the council’s settlement report also stated that other budget proposals concerning school places, centrally held budgets, and top up funding paid to providers exceed the High Needs Block settlement for 2025-26 and still leave a deficit balance of £23.828m.

Cllr Alex Dale, Cabinet Member for Education, told the meeting: “It’s still a bit of a drop in the ocean in terms of the scale of demand for SEND in particular and where a lot of authorities have extremely overspent, but I can accept that in previous years we have started to do that.”

Derbyshire’s current financial year expenditure on the High Needs Block is estimated to be significantly higher than the current year grant with recent budget monitoring estimating an overspend of £31.263m.

The council’s report has blamed the increasing number of Education, Health and Care Plans – which outline an individual child’s needs – as a significant factor with as many as 7,572 EHCPs being addressed at the time of recent budget monitoring representing an 18per cent increase from the same period last year.

Derbyshire County Council has agreed the number of places required in special schools for 2025-26 and the planned cost is £20.957m which is a £2.441m or 13.2per cent increase on the 2024-25 base figure of £18.516m. 

Proposed allocations concerning school places, centrally held budgets, and top up funding paid to providers exceed the 2025-26 High Need Block grant, according to the council, and would result in an in-year deficit budget being set totalling £23.828m. 

Derbyshire carried forward an accumulated deficit from its overall Dedicated School Grant for education at the start of the year of £16.945m, according to the settlement report, and this is expected to rise to £47.118m by the end of the financial year due to pressures from the High Needs Block.

The Government has stated the direction for SEND reform is towards establishing a more inclusive, mainstream environment and to return the system to financial stability as the DSG statutory override rule, which reduces the overall financial risks of the deficit falling on the council’s unearmarked general fund reserves, is due to end on March 31st, 2026.

Cllr Dale said there is a very serious increase in demand which is being felt across the country and a lot of other councils fear bankruptcy as a result so the county council is pushing for an extension on the DSG statutory override rule and for the Government to write-off these deficits because Cllr Dale claims it is not the fault of authorities that they have been under-funded.

He added: “We are starting to see some changes in Government and Parliament in terms of their perception of this and hopefully we are starting to push at an open door but we need to keep banging the drum on this.

“It’s a significant [High Needs Block funding] increase but there is a big projected deficit and we are working on a Higher Needs management plan as well to mitigate some of the impact of that on the budget.”

Cllr Dale said he welcomed the increase in HNB funding but he feels to achieve a more inclusive education system it would be better to put funding into mainstream education to become more inclusive to take the pressure away from the HNB which currently supports provision for pupils and students with SEND.

The Cabinet formally noted the High Needs Block settlement for 2025-26 and approved the number of school places, the rates for special schools, support centres and Enhanced Resource profiles and the central High Needs budgets.

Cllr Dale previously offered assurances that an action plan for the authority’s criticised SEND provision will be regularly reviewed after an Ofsted and Care Quality Commission report in November stated the Derbyshire Local Area Partnership’s work – including the council and the NHS Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board – needs to improve due to ‘widespread and or systemic failings’.

He has previously explained councils nationwide are facing huge demands for SEND support and the National Audit Office stated in a report last autumn that Government steps would not be enough to address many SEND challenges faced by local authorities nationwide.

Cllr Dale is also aiming to lobby Government for fairer funding for education after considering the Government’s overall School Block Funding Settlement for primaries and secondaries for the 2025-26 financial year. 

He has claimed it is one of the worst funding settlements he has seen for the county’s primary and secondary amounting to only a 0.3 per cent increase after taking into account a number of other factors which he believes the Government has overlooked.

But a Department for Education spokesperson stated the figure mentioned by Cllr Dale is ‘unrecognisable’ and they added that the per pupil percentage funding increase for Derbyshire in 2025-26 is 2.3 per cent compared to 2024-25.

Cllr Dale has also said he is concerned that what he considers to be an overall poor schools funding settlement will create more pressures for schools trying to achieve more mainstream inclusion for youngsters with SEND despite the increase in the Government’s High Needs Block Settlement. 

The overall DfE’s 2025-26 Schools Block Allocation for Derbyshire, including the Pupil Growth and Falling Rolls Fund, stands at £629.625m compared with £623.095m in 2024-25, and the overall Derbyshire Dedicated School Grant Block Allocations including the schools block, high needs, early years and central school services for 2025-26 showed a total allocation of £872.166m with a 6.30 per cent increase.  

The DfE stated that overall core revenue funding for all schools totalled almost £61.6bn for the 2024-25 financial year including £1.1bn through the Core Schools Budget Grant for 2024-25 to support schools with overall costs. 

During the October Budget the Government also announced an additional £2.3bn for all mainstream schools and young people with high needs for 2025-26 compared to 2024-25 which it says means that overall core school funding will total almost £63.9bn for 2025-26. 

The DfE has stated it recognises the challenges schools are facing but it has argued that the Government inherited a £22bn black hole from the former Conservative Government.