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Politics

Was This Cost Included in the Budget Headroom? (New SEN costs)

4 replies

TurnYourOutsideLightOffDuringTheDay · 27/11/2025 10:20

From Yesterdays Budget:
Local authorities face large and growing budget deficits as they struggle to absorb rapidly rising SEND costs within the Dedicated Schools Grant. In response, the Government has announced that from 2028-29 it will centrally fund the full cost of SEND provision, preventing councils from accumulating further debt. This transfer is expected to cost around £6 billion in 2028-29, rising to an estimated £9 billion by 2030-31. However, ministers have not yet set out how this will be met within the existing Department for Education budget, raising the prospect of increased overall departmental spending

Can someone answer this for me. So according to the above SEND is getting moved to education budget which kind of makes sense really.
However when RR is calculating her headroom how come she takes into account new income such as the pay per mile on EV which does not start till April 2028 but does not include this as an increased cost.

I mean it says she is doing this to prevent councils from accumulating further debt so that suggests an awareness that the cost is currently more than the budget allocated for it. So is the council losing part of the income they currently get for this? Presumably not since it comes from our council tax which is separate.

So if this is just a new cost for the education budget to help the councils struggling with their funds then how come she does not have to include this in her headroom calculation as a known future cost but can include pay per mile on EV which is a known future income.

I mean is that not manipulating the numbers to make the headroom look better.

I mean the whole thing was terrible anyway - no growth for the economy and 2b of the extra income is going to come from 'better collection' yeah right!

Or is the plan just to use the existing education budget (which didn't seemed to be talked about yesterday) so in reality SEN budget is just vanishing. I thought education was already really struggling. How will they cope with the extra cost or will they just abolish a bunch of the current spending on SEN.

I don't have SEN kids so it does not affect me personally so I was coming at it from a 'these numbers don't add up' point of view.

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Somersetbaker · 27/11/2025 11:22

Something like 40% of council funding comes from the government, so I would assume if SEN provision is no longer the responsibility of the council, the funding from the centre would be correspondingly reduced so that it an be reallocated to the department of education.

TheNoonBell · 27/11/2025 14:22

No that cost will be in the tax rises over the next few years. Rachel will continue to tax us to fill black holes whilst digging new black holes.

She will deem anyone with income or assets to have broad shoulders and rinse us accordingly.

TurnYourOutsideLightOffDuringTheDay · 27/11/2025 14:55

Somersetbaker · 27/11/2025 11:22

Something like 40% of council funding comes from the government, so I would assume if SEN provision is no longer the responsibility of the council, the funding from the centre would be correspondingly reduced so that it an be reallocated to the department of education.

Oh I see. Thanks. I hadn't realised some of the council funding came from central goverment.

So we can expect education budget holders to be complaining about the overspend on SEN v the budget available (I mean if the council have been overspending for years presumably the budget is not enough to cover the actual costs).

Will be interesting to see if it works out any better.

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TurnYourOutsideLightOffDuringTheDay · 27/11/2025 15:00

TheNoonBell · 27/11/2025 14:22

No that cost will be in the tax rises over the next few years. Rachel will continue to tax us to fill black holes whilst digging new black holes.

She will deem anyone with income or assets to have broad shoulders and rinse us accordingly.

Article in todays telegraph-
Budget 2025 latest: Teachers threaten to strike over Reeves’s Send plan

Looks like teachers already threatening to strike over their budget being used for SEN costs.

Trouble ahead it seems and we are only 1 day past the budget.

As to the rest of the budget - yip no growth whatsoever. So that ought to be interesting over the next couple of years as we dig ourselves into a bigger hole with our debt going up more and more.

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https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/11/27/budget-obr-ifs-reeves-growth-benefits-ftse-100-markets/

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