Norfolk County Council welcomes Audit Office report calling for special educational needs reform

Norfolk County Council has today welcomed a report by the National Audit Office calling for urgent reforms in how children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are supported. 

The report, Support for children and young people with special educational needs published today (Thursday, 24 October) says that England's SEND system is not delivering better outcomes for children and young people; is financially unsustainable and in urgent need of reform. 

It follows a similar report by ISOS, commissioned by the Local Government Association and County Councils' Network and published in the summer, which outlined that educational outcomes for children with SEND were not improving, despite a trebling of costs. 

Both reports have highlighted the significant deficits to local authority dedicated schools grants and outlined the risk of council's issuing section 114 notices, effectively declaring bankruptcy, if the government does not address the financial pressures being faced. In Norfolk the cumulative overspend is forecast to be c.£122m by March 2025. 

Through its Local First Inclusion (LFI) programme, Norfolk County Council is investing in additional support to promote inclusion in mainstream schools, as well as creating hundreds of new specialist places.  This builds on the council's £120m capital investment to build more special schools and specialist resource bases in mainstream schools. 

Despite this significant investment, like other local authorities, Norfolk is struggling to meet increased demand and increasingly complex needs. 

Cllr Penny Carpenter, Cabinet Member for Children's Services at Norfolk County Council, said: "We want children with special educational needs and disabilities to flourish. However, the system as it stands is not working. Outcomes for children aren't improving and too many children are having to travel long distances to school and are unable to attend their local mainstream schools, in their communities, with their friends. 

"We want to see proper investment in mainstream schools so that children with SEND can stay in their local communities and learn alongside their peers, wherever possible. We know that this leads to better long-term outcomes for most children. 

"We're keen to work with the government to support reform because this issue is above politics - we need to address it with urgency for the sake of Norfolk's children." 

Norfolk County Council has written to the Secretary of State for Education to offer to be part of any work to reform the SEND system. The council has also met with Norfolk's MPS and their representatives at Westminster with a general consensus to work together on the issue.