10 May 2024

We are concerned that the government’s ‘safety valve intervention programme’ is putting the education and wellbeing of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) at risk. 

The safety valve programme is a series of agreements between the Department for Education (DfE) and individual local authorities, agreeing that the DfE will “bail out” local authorities that have over-spent their high needs budgets. In exchange for a financial bail-out, local authorities have agreed to contain their spending on provision for children and young people with SEND, to avoid deficits building up again. 

Why we are concerned 

We wanted to find out whether the conditions attached to individual safety valve agreements increase the likelihood of local authorities breaching their statutory duties to children and young people with SEND. 

So, in October 2023, we made requests under the Freedom of Information Act to each of the 34 local authorities with a safety valve agreement at that time. In particular, we wanted to find out what targets might exist to limit special educational provision. 

We asked each local authority for a copy of their Dedicated Schools Grant management plan, the most recent safety valve monitoring report they had sent to DfE and a list of the key performance indicators they are using to monitor the safety valve agreement. We received information, in full or in part, from 27 local authorities. Five refused to supply any information, and two did not respond to us. 

The information we received was worrying, and our research has highlighted potential issues regarding the safety valve agreements and their impact on children and young people with SEND. 

What we found 

The aim of the safety valve intervention programme is a reduction in costs, but the effect appears to be a reduction in provision for children and young people with SEND. 

We found that, across the board, local authorities are aiming to improve their finances by ‘managing demand’ for EHC plans, expecting more children and young people with EHC plans to attend local mainstream schools and colleges, and reducing expenditure on children and young people with the most complex needs. 

Here are some of the key findings:

1. Reducing the number of EHC needs assessments 

Local authorities report that:

• They have targets for ‘de-escalating’ requests for EHC needs assessment.
• They consider requests for assessment made by parents/carers to be often ‘inappropriate’ and wish to deter them.
• They are implementing alternatives to the EHC needs assessment pathway. This is a potentially concerning development if these alternatives bypass the statutory process, including the right to appeal.
• They define “improving decision-making on awarding EHC plans” as increasing the number of times they refuse to carry out an EHC needs assessment or issue a plan. 

2. Reducing the number of children and young people attending special schools and colleges

Local authorities report that:

• They are reviewing the range of needs that children and young people have to ensure that “only the most severe and complex needs” are supported in special schools.
• They have explicit targets for the percentage of children with an EHC plan who will be placed in a mainstream school.
• They regard parents/carers exercising their right to appeal to the SEND Tribunal as a “culture of legal challenge” and believe it is a first rather than last resort. 

3. Reducing the number of children and young people attending a school or college outside their local area 

Local authorities report that:

• They recognise that local special school provision needs to be expanded so that fewer specialist placements are required outside a child or young person’s local area.
• They have explicit targets for reducing the number of young people who attend a specialist post-16 education setting both inside and outside their local area. 

4. Ceasing to maintain EHC plans 

Local authorities report that:

• They have targets for increasing the number of plans they cease to maintain each year.
• They employ dedicated staff to concentrate on ceasing young people’s EHC plans once they reach the age of 16.
• They intend to restrict Year 14 provision in special schools only to exceptional cases. 

Children and young people’s needs MUST be put first 

We believe that the safety valve intervention programme fails to centre the needs of children and young people with SEND and instead focuses above all on reducing expenditure. Key performance indicators are all about costs and not about how disabled children are affected or the outcomes they achieve. 

But the law on supporting children and young people with SEND is clear and unchanged – they have the right to special educational provision that meets their individual needs. Given that this is the case, the safety valve programme may expose more local authorities to more legal challenges than ever before. 

We are calling for an end to the safety valve programme. Local authorities should base their SEND planning and provision on children and young people’s needs – which will not just disappear – and not on financial targets.