A Government deal to tackle a huge overspend on Devon’s services for children with special educational needs has been welcomed by the chief executive of the county council.

Its overspend on supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) since April 2020, which is effectively debt, is projected to rise to £89 million next month.

However, as local authorities have been told to put their SEND overspends into separate ring-fenced accounts until April 2023, the figure does not currently appear on Devon’s main balance sheets.

There has been growing concern about what will happen when the arrangement ends, including the potential impact on other council services.

Along with many other local authorities, Devon remains in negotiations with the Government about dealing with the debt and changes to the funding system, which chief executive Dr Phil Norrey described as ‘broken’ earlier this year.

A report to last week’s meeting of Devon’s cabinet said ‘intervention discussions’ with the Department for Education about an ‘agreed package of support measures and actions’ will now continue into April.

It includes a management plan previously developed by the county council to help tackle the overspends. However, only £700,000 of the planned £6.5 million of savings is set to be achieved this year, due to the increasing numbers of under-25s who need support.

The plan also aims to increase the number of special school places provided directly by the council, which can be around four times cheaper than independent school places.

Updating the cabinet and opposition leaders on the talks on Wednesday, March 10, Dr Norrey warned there does not appear to be an ‘inexhaustible amount of cash from central Government to meet the cumulated deficits within local authorities’.

He said it is ‘important that we’re in negotiations now … because I think we stand a better chance of getting a higher proportion of the debt sorted out by Government than if we were in a later wave’.

But he stressed: “They’re not easy, these negotiations, I think it’s fair to say. The Government is not rolling over.”

Councillors were told the deal with the Government will involve an agreement on dealing with the current debt, and a plan to bring future spending back into balance.