Tuesday Topic 347

Recent controversies over SEND services illustrate the challenge facing local Councils

Only some of our local Councillors face local government elections next month. Be thankful you’re not one of them! For in these febrile political times, the BREXIT soap opera has crowded out so much that matters in public life. And so unpredictable may be voter intentions that in the 270 or so English local authorities that elect either a third or the whole of their councils, it must be pure guesswork who will be taking decisions a month from now.

Fast forward and imagine being a Cabinet member or even Leader of a Council and asked to take decisions on the Council’s budget. Good luck. It must be a thankless task. Since 2010, Councils have lost between 50% and 60% of central Government funding. At the same time, demand for some services has sky-rocketed, and nowhere has this been better illustrated than in the controversy surrounding services for Special Needs Education and for Disabled children – known as SEND.  In a succession of Judicial Reviews, parents have argued that Councils making cuts have failed in their statutory duties, and a nationwide campaign called SEND Action has joined local authorities in lobbying for more money from a beleaguered Education Secretary.

Government claims it has increased funding. And so it has. The trouble is that this has not kept pace with the growth in demand. Between 2014 and 2018, the number of children and young people with a SEND statement or requiring an Education and Care Plan (EHCP) has risen by 35% and Councils have apparently only balanced the books by stealing money from other parts of the education budget.

So why has demand increased so much? Read the authoritative LGA Report, published last December. It points out that some of the increase stems from the change of Government policy to include young people over 16 in the programme. Then it notes that a range of other schools’ policies remove from headteachers the incentive and the capacity to help those with special needs; school exclusions have also risen dramatically. What is possibly most striking however, is that in 2014, a new Code of Practice was published. It made ambitious and far-reaching changes to the scope and focus of responsibilities for the education of children and young people with SEND following. In the words of the LGA Report, “The new code appropriately and significantly raised parental expectations.”

Here is the rub. Managing expectations has now become a pivotal aspect of policy-making and service delivery. Remember the 10 Downing Street ‘Nudge’ unit; more correctly called the Behavioural Insights Team. Much of its original inspiration lay on recognising that people behave according to a range of stimuli which can often be influenced. The same inspiration provides a rationale for consultation. Talk to people; understand what drives their priorities and preferences; what alternatives do they have; are their perceptions well-founded?

As Councils contemplate the black holes in their draft budgets for 2020-2021, they may well be anxious about the recent Judicial Reviews that have muddied the waters on Budget consultations. Campaigners in Bristol won their case because the Cabinet had authorised large reductions in SEND expenditure without an impact assessment or consultation. In Surrey, however, the proposed cuts were more tentative, so the Court found for the Council. Who can now be sure whether the law requires consultation at the Budget shape phase or just when the substance of proposals are available for debate?

So, forget these cases. Accept that the only way to balance the books is to engage with those whose services will be impacted, and to work hard on their expectations. Councils are between a rock and very hard place, and there are fears that others will follow Northamptonshire into the ignominy of a S.114 notice. With a looming shortfall of £3.1bn in England this year, and an inevitable narrowing of spending towards adult social care, a vast range of services will have to change. The period when the same services could be delivered more efficiently are at an end. From now on, they have to be different services.

That can only happen with an effective dialogue with impacted stakeholders. Note the words of the National Audit Office Auditor General, Amyas Morse. Writing in his blog a month ago he called for a better debate over what local services we want and are prepared to finance. He then went on to say:

…there needs to be greater focus on applying evidence and identifying early warning signs. Too often central government has been slow to adjust – acting only when serious failure occurs. Perhaps most importantly, decision-making should be rooted in evidence, and I have not seen many credible evidence-based efforts to reconcile central funding to local needs.

Whether we are talking about SEND, knife-crime, housebuilding, hospital ward closures or any from hundreds of other services, the critical evidence often comes from those who are personally involved. Consultation provides a disciplined mechanism to gather this information, and only armed with this can public bodies ever square the financial circle and balance the books.

TRIGGER POINTS

1. Does your organisation or Council have a clear, committed approach to consulting its stakeholders on difficult budget issues?
2. The Institute has just released a short video highlighting the implications of recent SEND-related judicial reviews in Bristol and Surrey
3. “Have we reached a ‘tipping point’? Trends in spending for children and young people with SEND in England” was published by the LGA and ISOS, December 2018
4. Amyas Morse’s blog is always worth reading. Find it on https://www.nao.org.uk/naoblog/flexible-engaged-approach-efficient-public-services/
5. The Institute offers members and other clients a special Budget consultation Workshop that covers many of the issues covered in this Topic. Find out more (here)

This is the 347^th  Tuesday Topic; a full list of subjects covered is available for Institute members and is a valuable resource covering so many aspects of consultation and engagement.