09 February 2007
Councils are failing to secure appropriate or cost-effective education for children with special educational needs, the local government watchdog warned this week.
The Audit Commission said councils and their health partners were missing opportunities to find suitable, out of authority provision for children with complex special educational needs and identified a lack of integrated planning and monitoring of support for these children. It urged councils to review their approach to providing SEN provision.
Local authorities spend more than £500m a year on the 11,000 children who require out of authority placements for children with SEN, at an average cost of £57,150 per placement. But many councils failed to follow up pupils' progress and could not be sure they were extracting value for money from their outlay, the commission's February 6 report stated.
Audit Commission chief executive Steve Bundred said: 'In order to achieve the best outcomes for these pupils, our report recommends that councils and their partners undergo a major review of their approach to providing services to children with complex special needs.'
The commission noted that progress has been made by some authorities but Bundred added: 'There is clearly much to do before all councils can be confident that they are making the best provision for children with complex SEN, at reasonable cost to taxpayers.'
The report, Out of authority placements for special educational needs, said there was little long-term financial planning for SEN and full costs of supporting individual children often unknown. Until recently, many councils failed to challenge the fees charged by out of authority providers.
Opportunities for local provision were not being maximized and there was potential for reducing costs through greater joint commissioning, the commission said.
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