The government recently cleared more than 5bn in historic council Send debts. A surge in requests has authorities predicting they will have re-accrued that amount by April, then doubled it by 2028. The County Councils Network (CCN) published the forecasts on Tuesday and called the potential debts "catastrophic."
Applications for education, health and care plans (EHCPs) have accelerated recently. The plans mandate support for conditions such as speech and learning difficulties, autism or ADHD. The jump appears to partly reflect parents and schools rushing to secure support before the government's changes to Send provision take effect.
The CCN says councils are not to blame. It wants ministers to guarantee future Send debts that local authorities run up, because some councils would otherwise end up effectively bankrupt for meeting their legal duties. Linden Kemkaran, the CCN's Send spokesperson, said the deficits come from meeting "rapidly growing statutory demand" without funding keeping pace.
The government's own Fonagy report, published last week, found the rise in these conditions is real and distressing for many who have them, yet it also warned that the resulting demand for support is unsustainable without new ways to manage the pressure.