Council's SEND legal bills rise to £1.4m a year

Legal fees in cases involving families of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) have almost doubled in two years for Norfolk County Council.

The authority spent more than £1.4m last year in cases where families challenged its decisions, compared with £750,000 on SEND tribunals in 2022-23.

This year's fees are projected to be more than £1.5m.

James Wilson, the council's director of sufficiency, planning and education strategy, said the vast majority of tribunals took place because of a lack of specialist places in schools.

The council's bills for SEND tribunals – which take place when parents challenge its decisions on special school places or support for children – has been steadily rising.

It was about £500,000 in 2021-22 before rising to £747,600 the following year, and then £898,769 the year after that.

Independent council member Maxine Webb said £1.4m last year was a "shocking" amount and "something has obviously gone disastrously wrong".

"I see and hear every day how the council tries to penny-pinch on support for disabled children, and yet here it is chucking £1.5m every year at solicitors to fight parents trying to get help for their kids," she added.

Webb raised her concerns at a council meeting discussing plans to build two new special schools in Norfolk.

Wilson admitted he was "extremely worried" about the number of legal cases but said the "vast, vast majority of those tribunals exist because the [special school] places don't exist".

He said the council had been working to improve provision in mainstream schools, but the sector needed more support from central government "to meet a greater volume of need".

A spokeswoman for the council added that the rise in tribunal cases was "a national trend".

She pointed out that in the last five years it had created "more than 1,000 new specialist places" in mainstream and special schools.

The government has said it is spending £200m on giving all teachers in England SEND training and at least £3bn on creating 50,000 new specialist places.

On Monday, it announced it would be spending £5bn to pay off 90% of the debts English councils had built up through supporting young people with SEND to the end of the financial year.

The announcement came days after the Local Government Association warned that eight out of every 10 English councils would face bankruptcy if they had to honour deficits built up in recent years.

The government is expected to lay out its full plans for SEND reform in the coming weeks.

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