School leaders have voiced strong concerns about the local education authority's proposed increase to cover the cost of funding for children with special needs. 

At a meeting of the school's forum on Thursday, Rutland County Council's head of finance Andrew Merry said the local education authority was proposing to give a three per cent rise inflationary uplift to schools from next financial year. 

The school's budget is currently on track to be £5m over budget by the end of this financial year, largely due to rising costs in the high needs block. 

But Catmose College headteacher Stuart Williams said the issue had been discussed recently at the school's forum finance sub-committee and there was deep concern. 

He said: "From a school point of view almost all of the EHCP (Education, Health, and Care Plan) money is spent on staffing. Our staffing costs have gone up by at least five and a half per cent in the last 12 months alone so a three per cent uplift does not even come close to covering the increased costs. Then, secondly, there is a statutory responsibility for the local authority to provide sufficient funding to fulfil the EHC plan and I think with the current proposal you will end up with more challenges. We will certainly look at challenging EHCP provision based on the funding we are currently being offered because it does not currently meet what it costs us to provide that level of support for a child.  

"From the finance sub-committee there was a strong feeling that three percent would be insufficient. 

"I don't think I could support a three per cent uplift. I suggest we should as a schools forum express our view in terms of the school sector we represent." 

Catmose College Headteacher, Stuart Williams, spoke of the growing concerns about underfunding for students with Special Educational Needs (Photo: LDRS)

The Catmose College headteacher received support from colleagues within the forum including Oakham Primary School headteacher Steve Cox who said: '3 per cent is nowhere near and solution' and the head of Casterton College Carl Smith who said: 'it really isn't enough'. 

The forum voted to recommend to the local education authority that a 5.5 per cent increase was needed. A third of the plans are for children who have autism. 

Currently the county council thinks 390 children in Rutland will have educational health care plans by January. These plans set out the level of support the children need.  A third of the plans are for children who have autism. 

Andrew Merry said with finances as they are, he could not recommend more than a three per cent increase. 

He said: "The impact is there and at some point we are going to have to recover and pay these monies. We are going to have to live within our means at some point because government funding is not going to solve this problem. We are not getting enough funding to cover the increases in the EHCPs let alone uplifts in any of our funding measures either." 

He said he would take on board the feedback and discuss with the office in charge of SEND provision. The local authority will make a final decision. 

There was also annoyance from the schools forum about the local authority not providing the costs of SEND placements to independent schools as had been first asked in May. The finance officers said specific placement costs could not be given because specific children could be identified. 

Mr Williams said the delay was not good enough. 

He said: "There is a lot of ill feeling around SEND funding and it is not going away. 

"The first thing we want to do is explain to people where the funding is being spent and why we are in this sort of position." 

Rutland County Council is currently having to scrutinise costs across every department currently and has a savings target of several millions. 

Recent decisions have included closing the sports centre in Oakham and it is currently consulting on a new home to school transport strategy which could see more families having to pay towards the cost of their child's travel.