Government will write off £41.1m of Shropshire's SEND deficit now its reform plan is approved. The council's own forecast puts the debt back at £42.5m by March.
The government is to pay off £41.1 million of Shropshire Council’s debt on special educational needs, now that it has approved the council’s SEND reform plan. But the council’s own forecast shows a fresh £36.9 million overspend this year. That would take the debt back to £42.5 million by the end of March.
The council announced the approval on Thursday. Its press release says the money will “pay off 90% of its historic debts” built up supporting children and young people with SEND. It does not give a figure.
The figures are in a monitoring report to the county’s Schools Forum, the body of head teachers, governors and others that advises on school funding. Paper D, presented on 10 September, sets out the position at the end of August.
The numbers
Money for special needs comes from the high needs block of the Dedicated Schools Grant, which the government pays to councils for schools. When a council spends more than that grant, the gap builds up as a deficit. A national “statutory override” keeps it off the council’s main accounts for now.
The report says:
- Shropshire’s accumulated deficit at the end of March 2026 was £46.646 million
- the new High Needs Stability Grant, 90% of that deficit, is expected to be £41.090 million
- that leaves £5.556 million of the old deficit
- this year’s forecast overspend is £36.922 million
- added together, the deficit would stand at £42.479 million on 31 March 2027
The grant comes with conditions. The Schools Forum report says the local SEND reform plan “has been produced as part of the conditions of receiving the High Needs Stability Grant”. The council submitted it in June and has been meeting Department for Education officials about it, including on how many education, health and care plans it expects over the next three years.
Where the overspend comes from
The high needs budget for 2026-27 is £50.053 million. That is the government’s allocation of £48.916 million, up 6.6% on last year, plus £1.137 million moved across from the main schools budget. Forecast spending is £86.993 million, so the block alone is £36.940 million over.
Three budget lines take most of it. Each figure is the forecast overspend:
- £20.284 million on top-up funding for pupils in mainstream and special schools
- £12.132 million on independent special schools and other independent providers, where the budget is £17.216 million and forecast spending £29.348 million
- £2.689 million on post-16 places at further education colleges, against a budget of £2.159 million
Within the £20.284 million, £12.662 million is extra top-up money paid to mainstream schools. The report links it to a “large increase” in requests for needs assessments and education, health and care plans (EHCPs). The rest, £7.622 million, is top-up funding to special schools.
Independent places are the sharpest pressure. The council spent £26.405 million on them in 2025-26 against a budget of £15.016 million. It raised the budget by £2.2 million this year, and still expects to overspend it by £12.1 million. The report says demand for independent special school places has risen “year on year”, with more use of independent alternative providers, especially for young people over 16.
The report does find one sign of progress. Spending on independent places is forecast to rise by 11% this year. That is slower growth than in each of the three previous years, which it puts down to more money going to the county’s own special schools and SEND hubs.
More plans, and slower ones
The overspend tracks a rise in plans. Department for Education figures show 3,360 children and young people in Shropshire had an EHCP in the 2025/26 count, taken in January 2026. That is up from 1,946 three years earlier, a rise of 73%, and from 1,906 in January 2019.
New plans are also among the slowest in England to arrive. A new EHCP should be issued within 20 weeks of the request. In 2025, Shropshire issued 46 of 402 new plans on time, or 11.4%, according to the DfE’s education, health and care plans statistics.
- England as a whole managed 45.5%, and the West Midlands 40.7%
- Shropshire was the lowest of the 14 West Midlands councils
- it ranked 138th of the 150 councils with a published figure
- new plans took 35.3 weeks on average, and 36 took over a year
That rate has fallen from 38% in 2023 and 37.2% in 2024. Telford and Wrekin, a separate council, issued 93.2% of its new plans on time in 2025.
The 20-week figure covers new plans only. It does not measure annual reviews or changes to existing plans.
What the reform plan promises
The council’s release says the reforms will run from September 2026 to September 2030 and aim for “early identification, early intervention and more joined-up working”. The first strand, Experts at Hand, started this September. It gives schools earlier access to:
- speech and language therapy
- occupational therapy
- educational psychology
- specialist teachers
The Schools Forum report says the council has received £1.944 million of Experts at Hand grant this year, to help mainstream schools meet the needs of children with SEND “more effectively and inclusively”.
Councillor Andy Hall, the Cabinet member for children and education, said the approved reforms “will create the inclusive system Shropshire’s children and young people deserve”.
What happens to the rest of the debt
The government has extended the statutory override to March 2028, according to the Schools Forum report. From 2028/29, SEND spending moves inside the government’s own departmental budgets. At that point, the report says, councils “will be required to meet the cost of any residual deficits from their own resources”.
If this year’s forecast holds and nothing more is written off, that would put a deficit of around £42 million onto the council’s own budget. The report does not say how the council would meet it.
What it means for you
- If your child has, or may need, an EHCP, nothing in the plan changes your legal rights. The 20-week deadline for a new plan still applies, even though most Shropshire plans miss it.
- The council’s SEND Local Offer sets out services and how to ask for an assessment.
- Ask your school about Experts at Hand. It is the part of the reform that should reach classrooms first, through earlier therapy and psychology advice.
- The Schools Forum meets next on 12 November. Its papers, including the next DSG monitoring report, are published on the council’s committee pages about a week before.
The council also says it will keep working with parents through PaCC, the county’s parent carer forum, and SENDIASS, the independent advice service.
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