Hertfordshire councillor warns that special education plans are increasing at 'unsustainable rate'

Cllr Chris Lloyd (Lib Dem, Croxley) made the comment at the authority’s education, SEND and inclusion cabinet panel as it discussed its children’s services budget, with much of the discussion overshadowed by looming reforms to SEND.

Members were told that the local authority has earmarked over £300 million for children’s services this year.

Figures show that of the £1.2 billion set aside by Hertfordshire County Council for frontline services in the 2026/27 budget, just over a quarter (£309 million) will go to children’s services.

Adult care services account for the largest share of spending, with £563 million, while £133 million will finance growth and the environment, and £123 million will go towards community protection. A further £102 million will be spent on resources.

Meanwhile, councillors and officers are waiting for the Government to publish its long-awaited White Paper setting out planned SEND reforms for new legislation, expected in the coming weeks.

A report submitted to the committee panel on Friday, January 30, stated: “To support our children and young people to feel happy, healthy and safe at home, in school and in their communities, we will spend £309 million on our children’s services. This makes up over a quarter of our budget.”

Delivery of frontline services will increase by £32 million. Of this, £6.3 million is being spent on improving SEND outcomes, plus £3.5 million on transport for SEND children. Elsewhere, £16 million is being spent on children in care homes and with disabilities, and £1 million will go towards fostering allowances.

Meanwhile, £140 million in capital investment over four years will aim to deliver an extra 1,150 specialist SEND places across mainstream and special schools.

The council is highly critical of the Government’s Fair Funding Review, which it states is causing a reduction of £42 million in central grant funding over three years, leaving Hertfordshire as “one of the worst-impacted councils in the country”.

At the committee panel meeting, Rachael Adler, the council’s director of finance and business support, said: “We’ve got around £900,000 worth of savings, which is through the continued promotion of personal travel budgets and savings from re-tendering contracts…and we’ve seen significant uptake of personal travel budgets over the past few years, where we’ve been promoting their use.

“A second area is a new area of savings proposal around the use of internal fleets, and that’s also [saved] £900,000 next year, and that’s across departmental projection, which is looking to make the best use of our vehicles to reduce the cost of commissioning transport for this portfolio.

“A new area of additional investment of £140 million over this four-year plan is looking to expand facilities for children with SEND, so that they can learn in an environment that best meets their needs as close to home as possible, and this is looking to put provision across mainstream and special schools.”

Chairman of the committee, Cllr Mark Watkin, said: “I think there’s many points to make but I think strategically, what we’re showing is an administration with a total commitment to continuing to support and improve the life experiences of children with SEND, both in terms of our capital outlay and additional revenue with significant extra money going in to support our educational psychologists and our school support teams and various elements of that whole SEND environment.”

Cllr Chris Lloyd said: “Education is important, we were already not getting our fair share from central government, and they have made it worse. We have a challenge nationally that the number of children needing EHCPs is going up at an unsustainable rate.

“[The Government] needs in the [White Paper] they’re going to publish to actually come up with a more streamlined approach.

“It’s not efficient cost-wise for schools because of the amount of paperwork they have to do, and then our officers have to do. If it goes to appeal, most appeals seem to win. So, we need to be able to give every child the opportunity to develop their potential to the full, and this needs to be properly funded.”

Cllr Ralph Muncer (Conservative, Knebworth & Codicote) said: “Can I just ask how does this budget build resilience for any potential significant changes that the Government may announce?”

Cllr Watkin responded: “We’ve heard reports – they’re not substantiated – about the direction of travel the Government may be wishing to go.

“We’ve also had indications of a time-frame over which these may apply, which is surprisingly after the life of this Government.

“So, we have to work on what we know and not what is surmised, otherwise we’ll be lost in a cloud.”

Cllr Kirsty Taylor-Morgan (Green, North Ware) said: “For the banding that’s attached to EHCPs, that money isn’t going up with inflation, I think, and that’s been agreed by schools, I think.

“I’m worried that that’s going to disproportionately impact the smaller schools with too few pupils that might have a higher proportion of children with EHCPs than we might otherwise expect them to have.

“When schools are spending that money on staffing – that’s a cost that’s gone up enormously for schools – are they able to absorb that shock in not having those bands increasing? Are we going to have any more schools potentially moving towards closure because we’re saying they’re not viable?”

Ms Adler responded: “You’re right, we’ve had a number of conversations with the schools forum about the high needs budget as we take it forward.

“The banding you’re referring to is the funding allocated to educational health and care plans (EHCPs) once it’s been through the process and received a band. Conversations today have been slightly more delayed than in previous years, as we only got the settlement for the high needs block in late December, and we’ve been working on the basis that we would have received a 3% uplift in the grant and would have been able to afford to pass on inflation over a number of areas.

“In January, we received a grant which is flat on 25/26, so there is no provision in the 26/27 high needs grant for any uplift, inflation or otherwise. The latest conversation was that we haven’t agreed the final position, [and] that we would have to go forward with maintaining the bands as they currently are.”

After discussion, councillors voted to endorse the budget to the cabinet for approval.

Speaking after the meeting, Cllr Watkin said: “This budget demonstrates our absolute determination to support every child and young person in Hertfordshire.

“By investing in more specialist school places and strengthening SEND support, we are taking the practical steps needed to ensure children get the right support at the right time. Even in the face of national funding pressures, we are prioritising inclusion, opportunity and long-term outcomes for families.”