Rutland County Council's cabinet has said it will carry out its own intervention to protect the authority from the growing costs of educating children with special needs. 

The authority is facing a £2.3m overspend on its budget this year, due to an increase in special education costs. Like many councils, Rutland has an increasing number of children with an educational health care plan (EHCP) who qualify for additional support at school. 

The schools budget is the one area in which local authorities are allowed to be in a deficit position at the end of the financial year, although this is due to end in 2026. The deficit stands at £5.3m. 



Rutland County Council has been trying to make cuts across a variety of sectors in recent months (Photo: Nub News)

At the cabinet meeting yesterday, the cabinet member for resources, Cllr Andrew Johnson (Lib Dem – Braunston and Martinsthorpe) said the authority would now put in place its own 'innovative' measures to reduce the special educational needs overspend. 

He said: "This year we have decided to take a different view on the eventual funding we will receive from the dedicated schools grant. Deciding we will have to unwind our commitment, that we are being forced into by the government. 

"The reason for this is that activities we are required to fund under the grant are, and have been, greater than the grant received from central government. This funding gap has been building since 2020 and the difference between the amount received from the government and the amount the council has to pay out has been growing. 

"In the absence of any intervention from government, intervention to protect the council is now required." 

He said the authority had devised a new 'innovative' process pointing people to read an appendix attached to the report. The appendix said the authority would bring in EHCP annual reviews that will 'rigorously evaluate' whether the support is still needed or whether it should be removed. 

The report says: "It is recognised that halting the rising trend in overspend is a high priority but cannot be rectified within this financial year. However, the planned initiatives aim to slow down the growth in EHCPs and reduce the call on high needs funding once there is a more confident approach to inclusive mainstream practice in all our education settings. This, alongside a more robust financial management approach and a true understanding of cost and best value, will significantly contribute to a reduction in trend of the increasing High Needs Fund deficit." 

If the council does manage to stem the increase in special educational needs costs, it will do something that many councils have found elusive. 

Besides the school's budget, the authority will have to go into reserves to keep the finances on track. The budget set for the year was just over £52m, but it will increase to more than £53m with the additional £1.2m will be taken from department reserves. Adults social care and transport have overspent, but some other departments have underspent and more income has come in from bank interest than predicted. Cllr Johnson said going into reserves had been anticipated. 

Leader of the council Gale Waller (Lib Dem – Normanton) said it was hard for the council to predict what the budgets would be in some areas. 

She said: "With the best will in the world it is not possible to predict the future. People move into the area with needs, children are born with needs. These are all unknowns at the point of which you are setting your budget and I'd like to commend all our staff for their valiant efforts to try and get the budgets under control."