Council 'acted hastily' over school clawback row

A council acted "hastily" over a plan to remove money from local schools to reduce debt in its special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) budget, its head of children's services has said.

West Berkshire Council said in July it planned to repurpose £2.85m of funds raised by eight schools, with the schools given until Wednesday to make their case to the council about why they should keep the money.

On Wednesday, the council's portfolio holder for children and family services, Heather Codling, said the authority "didn't have all the information" when it made the plan, and that if money was ringfenced for a specific project that would be taken into account.

However, she said the council would "continue" with the plans.

"We will be taking money back off schools where funds have not been committed to a project," she said.

"We don't want to put any schools in difficulty... but some of them are sitting on very large amounts of money that's uncommitted."

Ms Codling said the plans "only affect a small number of schools", and that the council had "already eliminated a couple" from the original list.

"When people first brought this up and said 'we're not happy'... [we] said, 'we need to have a review'," she continued.

"We felt that we needed more information... as to why the money had not been spent, and if it was set aside for a project then definitely we will take that into account."

She said a final decision about the money would likely be made by the end of September.

A spokesperson for West Berkshire Council said: "We have always been clear that we never intended to redeem any money that has been committed to projects or raised by parents.

"We are currently reviewing the financial submissions sent to us by schools to ensure that this is the case."

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