Education funding announcement: CCN responds

On Friday, the Prime Minister announced an increase in education funding and £700m for local authorities for special educational needs and disabilities in 2020/21.

The County Councils Network had been leading calls for extra investment to match escalating costs in delivering special educational needs services, with county authorities projecting overspends next year.

Below, the network responds to the announcement:

Cllr Carl Les, CCN children’s services and education spokesman, said:

Today’s announcement of a significant funding boost for education is very welcome. The County Councils Network (CCN) has long campaigned for fairer funding for schools in county areas, especially those in rural areas. This additional funding will take further steps in narrowing the funding difference with schools in urban areas and provide much needed new resources. 

“More recently, CCN have been leading calls for the Government to provide a significant injection of resources to meet escalating demand for special educational needs and disabilities. Councils have faced severe overspends on their high needs blocks, which has contributed to wider financial pressures. 

“We are very pleased that Minsters have listened to our calls and will provide significant new resources next year to help provide families and pupils with the support they need, while ensuring councils are able to meet the additional costs they have faced.

“CCN look forward to the precise details of these funding plans, including how additional resources will be distributed. 

“Looking ahead to the wider Spending Round to be announced next week, we hope this is the first of a number of positive announcements that will help provide councils with the funding certainty we require and help close our estimated funding shortfall of £5.2bn next year, including additional funding for social care and roads.”

Notes to Editor;

• CCN is the national voice for England’s county councils. It represents all 26 county councils and 10 county unitary authorities. Collectively, they represent 25 million people, or 47% of the country’s population. It is a special interest group of the Local Government Association. For more information, visit countycouncilsnetwork.org.uk.
• CCN recently published a new report on SEND funding pressures, which showed county authorities saw a overspend of £123m last year. We warned that growing pressures could ‘break’ council budgets. The full release and research is here https://www.countycouncilsnetwork.org.uk/costs-of-special-educational-needs-services-could-break-council-budgets/