Devon’s special needs spending set for overhaul

Devon County Council is reviewing how it spends money on special educational needs in a bid to make the service more effective.

It comes as the county witnesses rising numbers of children with special needs and/or disabilities, commonly referred to as Send, and as it faces additional government scrutiny following its £95 million education-related bailout.

The council spends money on independent special school placements for children who can’t be accommodated by mainstream schools and on alternative education provision, which provides short-term support, including for those who have been excluded from school, are in care, or are missing from education.

At present, the council uses a so-called ‘spot purchase’ method, whereby it pays for each child on a case-by-case basis.

Teams must research which provider will best suit that child and agree on a whole raft of terms, a time-consuming process that the council wants to streamline.

Cllr Lois Samuel, (Conservative, Okehampton Rural) cabinet member for children’s Send improvement, told Devon County Council’s cabinet that the authority would “establish a better way of commissioning”, coupled with “better performance monitoring and improved outcomes”.

“Spot purchasing is done by different teams across the education service, but this change will mean we have a coordinated process with an approved list of providers,” she said.

“This will include current providers and any possible new entrants, and this approach to commissioning will mirror how other parts of our council do it and also benchmark us with other authorities.”

Council officers said the spot purchase method made sense when fewer children had to be catered for, but that with bigger numbers, “lots of staff time is taken up with spot purchasing”.

A new report presented to the council also showed that 5 per cent of pupils attending Devon state-funded schools had education, health and care plans (EHCPs), equivalent to 5,099 pupils.

“This is significantly higher than nationally and regionally,” the report said, adding that in total, 8,400 children overseen by Devon had an EHCP.

That could include the likes of home-schooled children or children educated in independent settings.

Cutting costs will be vital for the council, which is being tasked with demonstrating improvements to its Send service by the Department for Education (DfE).

While the government gave the council £95 million last year as part of a so-called Safety Valve scheme, the money is actually arriving in tranches over eight or nine years, with caveats attached.

Donna Manson, the council’s chief executive, said the additional focus on the department was positive.

“This is one of the benefits of the Safety Valve scheme in terms of the level of scrutiny and the gateways we have to go through”, she said.

“We need the capability to manage the volume of changes post-covid, managing the changing demand and the return to school, which has been difficult for some.”

“We know there is an increased volume and requirement for Send, and independent placements did increase, and now we have a much greater capability to manage it.”

Cllr Caroline Leaver (Liberal Democrat, Barnstaple South) welcomed the proposed changes to commissioning, saying it “makes sense as it will free up people for operational matters”.

But she asked whether the council would be able to make savings in its school transport budget as part of the changes.

She was assured that the council had more recently started to consider the funding of independent school places in an “integrated manner”, meaning it tried to consider the entire costs before making a decision.

Cllr Caroline Whitton (Labour, St David’s & Haven Banks) said the new framework was “well thought out.”

She continued: “The only raised eyebrow I have is that there is an element, reading between the lines, that the council didn’t have a good grip on what was going on with alternative education provision packages prior to this, so it is good it is being addressed,” she said.

The council will now review the contractual arrangements with its independent providers and discuss block contracting to reduce the overall price as part of various measures to improve the service.

It estimates it could save between £200,000 to £600,000 through block contracts in the short term.