Local Government Finance: Special Educational Needs
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Government will maintain or reform the “safety valve” and “deliverability” programmes for local authorities following the centralisation of SEND funding; and how councils such as Walsall will be supported in the interim years until 2028-29.
Answered by Georgia Gould
The government has announced plans to address deficits through making available the High Needs Stability Grant, which will cover 90% of all local authorities‘ high needs dedicated schools grant (DSG) deficits accumulated to the end of the 2025/26 financial year, subject to the authority submitting and securing the department approval for a local special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reform plan.
Safety Valve agreements will come to an end and will be replaced by the new, wider approach to managing DSG deficits and delivering reform across all local areas.
For the 2025/26 financial year, total high needs funding for children and young people with complex SEND is over £12 billion. Of that total, the West Midlands is being allocated over £1.2 billion through the high needs funding block of the DSG. Of that amount, Walsall Council is being allocated over £67 million.
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