Cheshire East Council has no plan in place to deal with its massive special needs budget deficit, just a seven-year proposal to bring spending back in line with grant income, a councillor said.
The Dedicated School Grant (DSG) overspend was reported to be about £112.1 million at the end of the 2024/25 financial year.
At an audit and governance committee, chair Michael Beanland (Con) expressed concern about the deficit which Cheshire East, like many other councils, is holding as a “negative reserve”.
Cllr Beanland said: “It isn’t recoverable.
“It’s not a seven-year plan to eliminate the deficit, it’s a seven-year plan to bring expenditure back in line with the grant incomes.
“There’s no provision within this MTFS (medium term financial strategy) for a reduction of the deficit before or even after the seven years…
“I understand there’s an override, and it’s not required for payment, but this is a draw on the council’s finances.”
The DSG is a ring-fenced grant handed out by the Department for Education for school budgets.
The high needs funding block of the DSG is used to pay for SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) provision.
But, for many councils, the cost of SEND provision has outstripped government funding by tens of millions of pounds.
To stop local authorities going bust, any deficit associated with the DSG is kept off their books thanks to a statutory override.
This means Cheshire East is holding this deficit in a “negative reserve” but it is paying interest on it.
The government recently announced it will extend the statutory override to keep councils’ SEND spending deficits off their books for another two years, until the end of March 2028.
Cllr Sue Adams (Disley, Con) told the meeting by doing this “it’s really reduced the incentive for people to actually get on top of this, so that’s a concern”.
(Story by Belinda Ryan, local democracy reporter)
Dear Mr Moorhouse,
You are absolutely correct. I am very concerned that democracy is being eroded both by the lack of transparency and lack of accountability of Cheshire East Directors, Executives, Senior Managers, and elected Councillors. There appears a culture of arrogance and we have a right to avoid any form of responsibility.
The public are totally disenchanted with politicians at national and local level. It appears incompetence is rewarded and that in Cheshire East , the Council Tax Payer is a Cash Cow to pay the bill.
CEC hasn’t a plan for anything, other than their xmas party.
The contents of this article surely raises the competence of all involved. It also gives concern of what information is being withheld for the council tax payers. A simple question is what other budget item/s are in a similair dire position?
A student with ADHD who excelled at college and won awards in the first year had little support in education, had to leave due to bullying and now is jobless even after applying for 250 jobs so on the scrap heap at 18yrs thanks to CE woeful SEND!!