The West Sussex Special Needs (SEND) funding crisis has been politicised by a Sussex Labour MP who has gone public with correspondence to County Hall about the matter, attempting to dismiss the national scandal as a local issue.
The Conservative councillor responsible for ensuring the needs of the county's children with SEND are met is "concerned at such a lack of knowledge over the special education funding crisis which is a national issue not a local one".
Many parents are becoming increasingly concerned as our county councils struggle to fund provision for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.
The Labour Government has extended the statutory override period meaning local authority expenditure over and above central government grant funding continues to put local authorities at increasing financial risk although the Labour government has promised a White Paper on the 2014 SEND Code of Practice and much-needed reforms of what it admits is “a broken system that requires urgent review”. It is important that they follow through on their commitment to carry out this review without delay.
Conservative Cllr Jacquie Russell (East Grinstead & Ashurst Wood) is the West Sussex Cabinet member responsible for ensuring children’s needs are met and was alarmed to receive a most ill-informed letter from a local Labour MP.
Dr Beccy Cooper, MP for Worthing, revealed a lack of understanding in a letter published on her social media, rather than entering into meaningful dialogue with Cllr Russell or accepting one of two opportunities she had been given in her first year as an MP to attend a specially-organised briefing in Westminster for MPs. in the Autumn of 2024 or 1st July 2025 in the run up to the publication of the White Paper anticipated end of September 2025.
Figures clearly show that West Sussex is significantly underfunded in this area, especially when compared to urban councils such as Brighton & Hove and the London Borough of Camden.
For 2025/26 West Sussex received a funding allocation of £1,244.86 per pupil; Brighton and Hove received £1,455.73 per pupil; London Borough of Camden - the highest funded authority in England - received a funding allocation of £3,564.95 per pupil.
“This stark variation in funding allocations is astounding and begs the question as to how it can be considered fair to give a SEND child in West Sussex, circa 15% less funding than a child in Brighton and Hove and 65% less funding than a child in Camden”, said Cllr Russell in her fulsome reply to the MP.
“The funding allocation system is based on outdated and inappropriate historic needs data, is grossly unjust and needs urgent review by the government and as one of our local MPs, I would expect you to be highlighting this without delay.”
Failure to fund
Whilst West Sussex’s annual High Needs DSG funding increased by 59% across the above accounting period, the local authority spend increased by 121% over the same period due to the overwhelming increase in demand.
To put that into some perspective; In 2015 the number of children with an EHCP in West Sussex stood at 3423. At the end of 24/25 they stood at 9573 and they continue to increase.
The seriousness of the situation was revealed by the National Audit Office in its October 2024 finding:
• “Since 2015, the demand for EHC plans has increased by 140% leading to 576,000 children with plans in 2024. There has also been a 14% increase in the number of those with SEN support to 1.14m pupils in school. These changes have increased the cost of the SEN system.
• Although the DfE has increased high-needs funding, with a 58% real-terms increase between 2014-15 and 2024-25 to £10.7 billion, the system is still not delivering better outcomes for children and young people or preventing local authorities from facing significant financial risks.
• DfE estimates that some 43% of local authorities will have deficits exceeding or close to their reserves in March 2026. This contributes to a cumulative deficit of between £4.3 billion and £4.9 billion when accounting arrangements that stop these deficits impacting local authority reserves are due to end. As such, the current system is not achieving value for money and is unsustainable”
Escalating demand
Between 2019 and 2024 West Sussex has seen a 75% increase in open Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs)
The data as calculated at Census Day (16Th January 2025) illustrates that for the period Jan to Dec 2024, West Sussex saw a 21% increase in the number of finalised EHCPs compared to Jan to Dec 2023, with the number of finalised EHCPs calculated on Census Day recorded as 9301, which - as mentioned previously - increased to 9573 as at March 2024/25.
Since 2023, the authority has seen a 135% increase in the number of new EHCPs.
The percentage EHCPs issued within the statutory timeline of 20 weeks has improved by 7.8% throughout 2024 compared to 2023.
Travel costs rising
As a result of the overwhelming SEND demand, the cost of SEND transport has also increased over this period by 133% from 12m in 2018/19 to 28m in 24/25, with SEND passenger numbers increasing by 50% from 1773 to 2668.
