West Sussex County Council forecasts £459m Dedicated Schools Grant deficit
West Sussex County Council has forecast a £459million deficit in its Dedicated Schools Grant by the end of March 2028.
The government grant is ring-fenced to fund the county’s schools budget, including blocks for early years and high needs. But, as councils all over the country would agree, there is never enough money to keep up with the costs.
By the end of 2025/26, the West Sussex deficit will be £214.2million. And by March 2028, the national deficit will be around £6billion.
A workaround – known as a statutory override – that allows councils to keep the deficit off of their budget books, was due to come to an end in March 2026, but the government has pushed it back to 2028.
Jeremy Hunt, cabinet member for finance, said the change would ‘save the government from having to bail us all out at this stage’.
While the terrifying prospect of having to find an extra £214.2million in March has been kicked down the road, the council still faces a potential loss of £7million of investment income this year.
As such, that money – which has gone towards subsidising the cost of high needs education – cannot be invested in other services or the capital programme.
It’s a situation Mr Hunt described as ‘a bit of a double-edged sword’.
The high needs block, covering the cost of education for children with Special Educational Needs & Disabilities (SEND) has placed the biggest pressure on the grant and seen huge increases in the demand for the service.
Jacquie Russell, cabinet member for children, young people & learning, said that the number of children with Education, Health & Care Plans (EHCP) increased from 3,423 in 2015 to 10,118 at the end of June.
Requests for an EHC Assessment rose by 209.5 per cent between 2015 and 2024 – and by 25.8 per cent in 2024/25. About 61.8 per cent of those requests were approved.
And the cost of transport for children with SEND rose from £12million in 2018/19 to £28million in 2024/25.
Government funding for high needs rose by 59 per cent between 2019 and 2024 but the amount spent increased by 121 per cent.
Mrs Russell said: “The government’s commitment to publish a White Paper to carry out a review of the 2014 SEND reforms cannot come quickly enough and is very welcome.
“Any delay to the implementation of the new SEND system to reduce the financial pressure on all local authorities will see this authority relying on external borrowing to meet demand from 2026/27.”
One issue which Mrs Russell is especially keen to see addressed is the disparity in funding between the various authorities. She said some small London boroughs received as much as 65 per cent more per child than large shires such as West Sussex.