The growing costs of Bristol City Council’s special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) budget is putting the authority at “huge financial risk” and potentially “bankruptcy”.
A report presented to the Bristol Schools Forum last week outlined that the authority overspent the initial SEND budget by £16m. This brings the cumulative budget deficit for the sector to £42.5m over the past three years.
It also detailed that Bristol City Council received £422.7m of funding this financial year from the Dedicated Schools Grant, which finances SEND.
At the meeting, Angel Lai, finance director at local authorities, stated that currently councils can overspend their SEND budgets due to the statutory override granted by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities until March 2026.
But with Bristol’s continued overspending of its SEND budget it is at significant risk after the override ends.
Lai said: “The statutory override instrument will end in March 2026, which means there’s a risk to the local authority if we don’t turn the financial position around and we can’t afford it.
“We don’t have the reserves to cover the overspend as it is, let alone if the position keeps on deteriorating.
“So, there’s a huge financial risk to the local authority.”
The local authority will run out of money [after the override ends] and if you run out of money [that means] bankruptcy, in commercial terms, so this is how severe the problem is.
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Bristol could face ‘bankruptcy’
Lai explained that Bristol City Council must come up with a plan to deal with the overspend otherwise the authority will not be able to balance its budget.
“The local authority will run out of money [after the override ends] and if you run out of money [that means] bankruptcy, in commercial terms, so this is how severe the problem is.”
She stated that the council is currently engaging with other local authorities and the Department for Education about Bristol’s current financial situation.
This comes as just last week Bristol City Council recorded a £57.9m service variation for the 2022/23 financial year from the £431.1m general fund budget agreed in 2022.
The report outlined that the original budget has been increased by £12.8m to £443.9m, due to a net unplanned movement of general and earmarked reserves.
It also detailed that the council expects an in year overspend of £3m, which represents 0.7% of the revised budget.
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