Derbyshire schools: Children ‘betrayed’ says Chesterfield MP – as council spends only 9% of special needs funding

The school forum report revealed that Derbyshire County Council received around £17.5 million of capital funding from the Department for Education since 2019 for additional special school places - but has spent only about £1.5 million.

That means £16 million, or 91% of the budget received, has not been yet used, while parents of special needs children across the county have been complaining about their children not receiving the support they need.

Data released at the end of last year show that from February 2022 to May 2023, a third of EHCPs (Education, Health and Care plans) in Derbyshire were not completed within 20 weeks as required by law.

Many parents have also complained that their children have been forced to go to mainstream school and some decided to take them out of school altogether due to worries over their needs and safety.

Speaking in the Parliament, Chesterfield MP Toby Perkins said: "Parents of special needs children lose sleep every night at the lack of provision in our county. It is nothing short of a betrayal of those parents and their children.

"Spending on private schools for children with special needs has increased from £5.7 million in 2018-19 to £24 million in 2023-24, according to the schools forum report, while investment in council provision falters.

"At almost every single one of my weekly surgeries, I have parents in attendance who have children with special needs who are unable to get into a dedicated special needs establishment.

"Often, these children are excluded from their mainstream school—these children are missing months or, in some cases, years of their schooling—and are unable to make a mainstream placement work, but unable to access specialist provision.”

Mr Perkins spoken at length about Brampton Primary School, which has an excellent special needs unit and a good reputation for supporting special needs children within its mainstream provision.

As a result many parents from outside the Brampton catchment area who have special needs children choose it. The primary school has 317 children on its roll, with 31% of these children with SEN.

But each child who has EHCP has the first £6,000 of their extra costs covered by the school before any central funding comes in. While the children and their families wait for their assessment, the school receives no additional funding for these pupils.

Anne-Frances Hayes, councillor for Staveley, is regularly receiving calls from parents of special needs children complaining about the lack of support from Derbyshire County Council.

She said: “I have several families in my casebook whose vulnerable children are being forced either into mainstream education or out of education altogether due to the Council’s lack of investment in SEND provision. The children concerned vary in degrees of special provision required, some have an EHC in place, some have had to wait months.

"Some of the ECHs recommend the child is given a place at a special school only for the family to be told that no spaces are available. Some ECHs recommend a place in a mainstream school seemingly against the advice of professionals.

"In every case, there has been a history of delay and obfuscation by the system. As a result, parents are having to battle an overly bureaucratic process with over-stretched officers, which is in turn leading many parents to struggle with their own mental wellbeing.

“It is devastating to learn, therefore, that whilst these families live in limbo, the County Council has failed to spend over 90% of the budget that was specifically allocated by the government for SEND provision. This money would have gone a long way to assuage the worry and distress that is proving to be a daily burden on parents, schools, pupils and vulnerable children.”

Councillor Alex Dale, Derbyshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Education, said: “It’s completely inaccurate to imply that we have held £17.5million of SEND capital funding since 2019. The vast majority of it (£13million) was not announced by the Government until March 2022.

“We are working very hard towards allocating this important funding, but it’s money that can only be spent once so it needs to be based on a proper, high-quality sufficiency study to ensure we provide the right sort of places in the right areas to meet the demands we are facing. This is not easy in a county with a geography like ours, with different needs rising in different areas and does unfortunately take time. Rushing to make ill-thought-through decisions around allocations would mean we’d fail to adequately meet the needs of Derbyshire children and ultimately cost the taxpayer far more in the long term.

“While the funding is focused on increasing SEND provision, it is incorrect to suggest it is just for increasing special school places. Our approach will include some expansion of special school places, but the money will also be spent on Alternative Provision and Enhanced Resource units to support inclusion in mainstream schools because in many cases children with additional needs will get better outcomes in a mainstream setting with the right support.

“There has been a huge amount of work taking place behind the scenes around our sufficiency to enable us to build the right type of provision in the right areas of the County. This includes recent consultations with schools who have been putting forward expressions of interest to be considered for an expansion of different types of places. School clusters will also be part of the decision-making around the allocation of this capital funding to ensure collective buy-in and agreement with the approach. We are due to make initial decisions with them on allocating this funding in the very near future.

“Finally, the money is ringfenced specifically for this work and does not directly impact on the revenue budget issues we’ve faced as a council recently – to suggest otherwise is again incorrect.”