The government must work with councils to implement the SEND reforms and provide more funding details, as the current system is “vulnerable”, the Local Government Association has warned.
The scale of England’s crumbling school system infrastructure has been brought into sharp relief after a survey found more than half of schools have buildings that are are out of use or not fit for...
A national fall in primary school pupil numbers is creating financial risks for schools and could impact educational quality, a report from the National Audit Office has warned.
The government has committed to investing £20bn in school rebuilding projects, and £3bn per year by 2034-35 in improving the condition of the school estate, following a report that warned incremental...
If the SEND system overhaul is not properly funded, it risks “rationing support and shifting blame onto schools” instead of fixing the “broken system”, parliament’s education committee has heard.
The introduction of tiered levels of support, SEND training for all teachers, and 60,000 new places for children with SEND are among the reforms to the special educational needs and disabilities...
The government has confirmed it will write off the bulk of local authorities’ historic SEND deficits following the publication of the final local government settlement – however councils warned the...
Eight in 10 councils will be unable to set balanced budgets if SEND deficits are not written off and the provision system is not reformed, the Local Government Association has warned, reiterating its...
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson has tabled an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill that would see multi-academy trusts brought into the inspection system, in light with the...
Questions over who funds special educational needs and disabilities provision – and how much it will cost – remain unanswered despite the government outlining a series of reforms in the Budget, the...
Mounting debts from supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities effectively “hidden away” in council accounts could lead to nine in 10 affected authorities issuing a Section...
Councils are struggling to meet their legal duty to provide home-to-school transport in the face of mounting pressures which have seen budgets overspent by over £400m.
Mounting pressure on special needs and disabilities support is threatening education services’ financial resilience, the National Audit Office has warned.
Prolonged uncertainty in the wake of the Spending Review over the handling of mounting high needs deficits is causing “massive concerns” among local authorities, the government has been told.
The government will face difficult trade-offs if it attempts to protect schools and colleges from pending education cuts, with some areas being “squeezed out entirely”, a leading think-tank has...
Councils have warned they face financial catastrophe in a year’s time unless the government takes action to remove “unmanageable” high-needs deficits from their balance sheets.
Interventions by CIPFA and the Education Policy Institute lay bare the issues facing the English system of support for children with special educational needs and disabilities, and suggest ways to...
The crisis in support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) risks creating a “lost generation” as well as posing an existential financial threat for local authorities,...
Soaring costs for special needs provision are set to wipe out any potential for school savings on the back of declining pupil numbers, according to a report.
The local government sector has welcomed an injection of £740m to boost the number of specialist places in mainstream schools but said it must be accompanied by action to write off councils’ “...
More than half of multi-academy trusts see themselves as “financially vulnerable”, with almost four in five having been forced to dip into reserves over the last year to cover costs.
