Buckinghamshire County Council - Funding for Pupils without an EHC Plan

Buckinghamshire County Council Informally Notifies Parent Forum it Will No Longer Provide Top-Up Funding for Pupils without an EHC Plan

A Buckinghamshire parents’ forum has advised they have been informally notified by Buckinghamshire Council it will no longer be accepting applications from schools and other educational institutions for top up funding for students with special educational needs and disabilities, that do not have an EHC Plan. This means that for children and young people with special educational needs who do not have an EHCP, if they require any special educational provision which goes beyond the school’s regular funding for that pupil, their school will no longer be able to approach the local authority for additional funding. 

Like many local authorities, Buckinghamshire County Council have consistently overspent in their education budget and this new stance from them is likely to be an attempt to reduce their education spending going forwards. This is likely to be short-sighted as consequently, more children and young people with special educational needs will now require an Education, Health and Care Plan in order to secure special educational provision should their school be unable to fund their special educational provision from within their own budgets. In addition, higher needs funding has often been used as an early intervention method to help children with special educational needs to ‘catch up’ to their peers without the need to secure an Education, Health and Care Plan.

If funding is not available to schools for children with special educational needs with no EHCP, it is unclear if the local authority expects the school to fund that provision themselves or that it shouldn’t be provided at all. Given that the majority of schools do not have capacity within their budgets to provide this special educational provision, without an EHCP it is highly likely these children will not receive the special educational provision that they require to meet their needs. This in itself could necessitate the need for an EHCP. Furthermore, the gaps between these pupils and their peers could widen and which could also necessitate an Education, Health and Care Plan being issued earlier.

The fallout of this new stance from Buckinghamshire County Council will likely be that families and schools will have to make applications for EHCPs in order to obtain support and special educational provision for children whose needs could previously have been met in mainstream schools with the support of higher needs funding.  In addition, this stance could make it more difficult for mainstream schools to be able to meet the needs of children with special educational needs.

If you think your child or young person may be impacted by the new stance of Buckinghamshire County Council, and that they may now be left without special educational provision without an EHCP, then please do not hesitate to contact us to see how we can assist you in moving forwards. You can contact the HCB Widdows Mason Education Department on 0333 202 7175 or alternatively email education@hcbgroup.com, for a free initial consultation regarding your concerns.