Dedicated school’s grant challenges

Dedicated School’s Grant - Challenges 16th December 2016 Dear All The text below is self-explanatory (we hope). Any questions at all, please let us know. We are very interested to hear from you. It will only help us to challenge positively and ensure the most needed services are prioritised.

A separate (usual) Dear All will follow on 17th December. We felt this subject deserved its own announcement…

SEND Funding Challenges: briefing note on Dedicated Schools Grant

This briefing note follows a presentation about the Dedicated Schools Grant given to the SEND Family Voices (SFV) steering group by Rob Henderson, Director of Children’s Services for Kingston & Richmond, on 5 December.

What is the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG)?

The DSG is provided to schools by central government. The local authority administers the grant on behalf of central government and schools.

The DSG is divided into three parts: Early Years, Schools and High Needs Block. The High Needs Block is the monies over and above those which schools have within their School’s portion of the DSG to support children and young people with SEN. It is the funding which accompanies a Statement of SEN or Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).

What is the Challenge?

All local authorities have a legal duty to provide support for all eligible children and young people with SEN; this has to be met from a limited budget. Future need is predicted to rise by between 40% and 50% by 2022, while at the same time, overall funding from Government is reducing.

Achieving for Children (AfC) is currently facing a predicted deficit of £22million by 2022. AfC has taken steps to reduce this deficit to £16million. These steps include:   

supporting the new Free Schools from the Auriga Trust to increase local special school provision (for the future) reduction in school per pupil funding reduction in non-high risk central spending



reduction in management costs by bringing together services across Kingston and Richmond.

In effect, every new EHCP contributes to the overspend. We are keen to be as open and transparent as possible about the financial challenges facing services in Kingston and Richmond. Of course, it is not just services for children with SEN which are facing these challenges: our owning Councils have lost over half of their Government funding. We are in ongoing discussions with the Councils to make sure that the DSG issues are part of the wider budget debate. Local head teachers have recently written a joint letter to the Government to express their grave concerns about the impact of budget reductions on their ability to provide the best possible education to their children.

What next?

Unfortunately there is no ‘silver bullet’ to resolve the financial challenges. The meeting on 5 December was part of an ongoing conversation about the budget challenges facing services in Kingston and Richmond. We at AfC are committed to working with SFV to try and work in partnership with families to prioritise services.

15th December 2016 As ever, if you have any queries at all, please ask and we'll always do our best to find an answer.

With best wishes, Caroline North (for Kingston) and Romany (for Richmond) Phone: 07469 746 145 www.sendfamilyvoices.org