Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to his Department's SEND Review, if he will set out the planned funding per local authority provided through the (a) Safety Valve Programme and (b) Delivering Better Value programme; and whether he has made an assessment of the potential effect of that planned funding provision on local authority SEND budgets.

The SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) green paper is looking to make a more financially sustainable high needs system in the long term. For some local authorities, however, there is a more urgent need to resolve issues with the sustainability of their high needs systems. The department will therefore, from this year, run three programmes offering direct support in respect of the sustainability of high needs systems, which together will work with all local authorities: the safety valve, delivering better value and ESFA support programmes. The aim of all three programmes is to secure sustainable management of local authorities’ high needs systems and associated spending, with support and intervention tailored to the severity of the problems local authorities are facing.

The safety valve programme is continuing to work with the local authorities with the highest dedicated schools grant (DSG) deficits, as it has done since it began in the 2020-21 financial year. In this programme, it is for local authorities to make proposals to the department regarding: how they will reach an in-year balance on their DSG and thus manage themselves sustainably; how they will subsequently contribute themselves to their DSG deficit through reaching an in-year surplus; and the ask they make of the department to support the elimination of their historic deficit, following the local authorities best efforts to reduce the deficit themselves. Safety valve agreements hold local authorities to account for the delivery of their proposals for generally five financial years, and funding is spread out across the lifetime of the agreements. The government cannot, therefore, determine in advance how local authorities will be funded through the safety valve programme. Exact funding amounts to be awarded to any local authority will be detailed in their individual published safety valve agreements, found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-very-high-deficit-intervention.

The new Delivering Better Value programme (DBV) will work with the local authorities with less severe deficits than those in the safety valve programme. For local authorities in the programme, the department will provide project and change management capacity, alongside SEND financial and practice advisers, to support local authorities in engaging with their key stakeholders and undertaking a comprehensive diagnostic process to identify and address the drivers of their deficits. The expectation is that local authorities in the programme will be able to reach an in-year balance and subsequently pay off their own deficits with surpluses in future financial years. There is £85 million funding available for the DBV programme. Funding has not yet been allocated per local authority, and the department will allocate funding to each local authority based on their action plans. The programme will not include funding to eliminate historic deficits directly.