Council facing growing debt due to SEND services

A council is facing a significant financial shortfall without a government bailout, a report has said.

West Berkshire Council has a projected debt of up to £37m in special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) schools provision, according to a report to the council's executive.

The report said both the number of clients being supported by the service and the cost of delivering that support had risen due to the increasing complexity of needs.

The council executive will discuss the issue on Thursday.

The Dedicated Schools Grants, and within it the High Needs Block, comes from central government and funds SEND services.

The report said this year's overspend of almost £7m was forecast to increase in the short term to around £20m per year.

This would "quickly propel this year's closing cumulative deficit of £17m to £73m by 2027/8 if all currently planned mitigations are realised and almost £95m without them, the report said.

There is currently a statutory override in place for all councils until March 2026 at which point, if nothing changed, the liability – projected to be between £31m and £37m – would fall to the council.

Removal of the statutory override could result in the immediate issue of a bankruptcy notice.

While the number of children in West Berkshire Council's care has stabilised, the complexity of needs is still increasing.

Children's services has secured funding in 2025/26 for a dedicated commissioning and brokerage team to ensure placements are both appropriate and affordable, which aims to save £3m over the period of the project.

The education service has also incurred significant agency costs as key posts - namely for educational psychologists, which it said it finds hard to recruit.

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