By GB News (Politics) | Created at 2025-01-20 14:47:39 | Updated at 2025-01-20 17:50:01
3 hours ago
A cash-strapped council has spent over £870,000 fighting parents in ongoing disputes over school places last year.
Norfolk County Council spent £872,000 on legal fees fighting parents over special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) school placements in 2024, according to the latest data.
Parents lodged 455 appeals against the council's decisions on school placements for children with SEND last year, up from 308 in the previous year.
In 159 of last year's cases, children were subsequently placed in special schools, while hundreds of appeals remain unresolved.
A cash-strapped council has spent over £870,000 fighting parents in ongoing disputes over school places last year
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Critics have branded the council's proposed changes "deplorable" as Maxine Webb, independent county councillor for Norwich's Wensum division and mother of a child with special educational needs, said the approach was misguided.
"Families will feel let down to see their worst fears confirmed, that Norfolk County Council chooses interfering with the law as the best solution to reducing their SEND costs and balancing their books," she said.
"Taking away the rights of children to solve a decade of government underfunding is not only offensive, it does nothing to address the fundamental problem, or actually help to support children. It's pretty deplorable."
Insisting that reform was required, cabinet member for children's services Penny Carpenter said: "We are backing national calls for reform because the current system isn't working for children.
"Unfortunately, current policy makes it very difficult for schools, parents, health partners and the local authority to work effectively together."
"For most children that is mainstream education, in their local communities, and this is where most of the resources should be focused," she said.
One cabinet member revealed that the council wanted to help the Department for Education test new approaches to improve use of resources
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She added that the council wanted to help the Department for Education test new approaches to improve use of resources.
The Conservative-controlled council has invested £120m in building new specialist schools, including facilities in Great Yarmouth, Fakenham and Easton.
Plans for additional schools are in development, alongside the creation of new specialist resource bases.
Despite doubling funded special school places over the past decade, the council continues to face capacity challenges.
In March 2023, the council secured a "safety valve" agreement with the government, receiving £70m for education services and SEND support until 2029.
This bailout was intended to address the council's deficit, which accumulated due to increasing numbers of children requiring specialist provision and growing complexity of needs.
