Families launch legal bid to prevent SEND cuts

The attempt to prove Surrey County Council's actions are unlawful is currently being heard at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.
 
Five Surrey children with special educational needs claim the local authority should have consulted with those who would be affected before it approved a decision to reduce its SEND funding by £21m.
 
They also claim the council has breached its public sector equality duty and that it failed to safeguard and promote the welfare of vulnerable children, as required by the Children Act 2014.
 
According to council documents, the number of children with a SEND statement or education health and care (EHC) plan it supports rose by 44 per cent from 2,342 in 2010/11 to 7,700 by February 2018.
 
A Surrey County Council spokesman said: "We are defending this claim but as ever our main focus is making sure children get the support that they need."
 
In August the High Court blocked Bristol City Council's decision to cut £7m from its SEND budget, after it found the process used by the authority to reach the figure was legally flawed.
  
Other parents are due to bring a similar claim against Hackney Council later this month. And nationally a group called SEND Family Action plans to take legal action against the government for creating what it sees as a national crisis in SEND support, through cuts to government grants to local authorities.
 
Led by families including parents from North Yorkshire and East Sussex, it has launched a crowdfunding campaign to fund research into legal grounds on which to bring the claim.

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Irwin Mitchell specialist public law and human rights lawyer Anne-Marie Irwin, who is representing the group as well as those families brining claims in Surrey and Hackney, said there is concern that increasing numbers of local authorities are failing to meet statutory responsibilities to disabled children.
 
"Through our work in helping families of children with special educational needs we have seen the increasing strain local authorities are being placed under because of budget cuts," she said.
 
"The families are concerned that local authorities are not receiving enough funding so wish to investigate whether there are legal grounds to challenge the government over its funding support.
 
"They believe that thousands of children across the UK with special educational needs are currently unable to receive the support that they need."
 
A day after the group launched its campaign, North Yorkshire County Council announced it would launch a consultation on proposals to reshape its SEND funding.
 
It plans to cut the budget by just under £2m by changing the way provision for secondary age pupils who are excluded or at risk of permanent exclusion is commissioned and funded across the county.
 
It will also reduce the number of hours of funded of top-up tuition children aged over 16 with EHC plans receive from 25 hours to 16 hours each week.
 
North Yorkshire County Council's lead member for education and skills Patrick Mulligan said the government had dealt the authority "a poor hand that is not good enough for the children and young people of North Yorkshire".
 
"For this reason we continue to lobby government to fully fund the high needs budget and have written to our MPs asking for their support," he said.
 
In response to the ongoing and proposed legal actions, minister for children and families Nadhim Zahawi said he recognised there were "pressures on high-needs budgets" due to increasing costs.
 
"Our ambition for children with SEND is exactly the same for every other child - to achieve well in school and college, find employment and go on to live happy and fulfilled lives," he said.
 
"We have introduced EHC plans, putting families at the heart of the process and providing support tailored to individual needs.
 
"Our externally-led exclusions review is looking at why some children are more likely to be excluded from school, including those with SEND.
 
"Core schools funding is increasing to £43.5bn by 2020 - 50 per cent more per pupil in real terms than in 2000," he continued.
 
"Included in that total, the national high needs budget for children and young people with more complex SEND is £6bn this year - the highest on record, and up from £5bn in 2013."
 
North Yorkshire County Council's consultation will be open from 5 October until 11 November 2018.