Council responds to letter sent by Northamptonshire MPs on SEND funding

£6.4m was given to North Northants Council (NNC) through the high needs capital allocation to improve the provision of SEND services, with questions being asked about how it will be used.

MPs Lee Barron (Corby and East Northants), Rosie Wrighting (Kettering) and Gen Kitchen (Wellingborough and Rushden) each signed the letter sent on Monday (March 30), claiming the current system in North Northamptonshire is ‘failing too many children.’

Council leader Cllr Martin Griffiths, while not currently providing his own response to the letter, has ‘endorsed’ a statement from Cllr Graham Cheatley (Kingswood, Reform UK), who ‘welcomes’ the £6.4m government funding for SEND.

Cllr Cheatley said: “This investment will help us create more specialist places and improve the accessibility of school buildings, which is something families across our area rightly expect.

“However, it is important to be honest with residents about the wider picture.

“For many years, councils nationally have faced severe underfunding of SEND revenue, particularly within the High Needs Block. This is what created the large deficits that every council has been forced to carry. These pressures did not arise locally, they were the direct result of a national funding gap at the same time as councils were given increasing statutory responsibilities.

“I therefore welcome the Government’s recent commitment to finally address up to 90 per cent of these historic SEND deficits.

"This is a positive step, but it does not change the fact that councils have had to hold these deficits on their balance sheets for years, backed by their own cash reserves. That has meant lost interest income and reduced flexibility to invest in other local priorities.

“The new £6.4m is capital funding, which can only be used for buildings and infrastructure. It cannot be used to fix the long‑term revenue pressures that affect staffing, therapies, transport, casework and day‑to‑day SEND support. Residents deserve clarity on that distinction.”

Cllr Cheatley goes on to say that the council’s focus is to expand specialist places, improve inclusion, support families, and ensure ‘every child receives the provision they are legally entitled to.’

He added: "We will continue to work constructively with Government and MPs, but also continue to be transparent about the funding challenges that have built up over many years. What matters most is delivering the right support for children and young people with SEND, sustainably, responsibly and with honesty about the financial realities councils face.”

The letter, addressed to council leader Cllr Griffiths, takes aim at the Reform UK-led North Northants Council on the use of the SEND funding, as well as the ‘ongoing poor treatment’ of children with SEND and their parents by representatives at the top of Reform UK, including when party leader, Nigel Farage, said that SEND provision is ‘creating class of victims’ by ‘massively over-diagnosing those with mental illness problems.’

Also put to the council were David Bull, chairman of Reform UK’s comment that ‘many of these kids are naughty kids, bad parenting.’