UNIONS and councils have welcomed a government commitment to write off 90 per cent of the special educational needs and disabilities (Send) deficits accrued by authorities up to this year.

The move is part of its final Local Government Finance Settlement and comes after councils last week warned the majority of them would face insolvency when a statutory override keeping Send deficits off their books expired in 2028.

Ministers vowed to resolve 90 per cent of the high-needs deficits accumulated by councils on their dedicated schools grants to the end of 2025/26.

Resolving these deficits could cut the cost of financing existing deficits by an estimated £300 million by 2027/28, the government said.

National Education Union general secretary Daniel Kebede said: “This was a welcome recognition of the reality of the underlying situation. These debts were not going to be repaid and their existence threatened the stability of local government finances. 

“Writing off the debts does not however address the underlying issue. There is a massive and growing gap between what is supposed to be spent on high needs budgets and what is actually being spent.

“It cannot land on the Department for Education’s core schools budget without massive cuts being made to mainstream funding — 2028-29 also sees the introduction of the new Send provision system following the much-delayed education white paper.”

Cllr Louise Gittins, chair of the Local Government Association, which represents councils across England and Wales, welcomed the commitment as a “recognition that these costs are not of councils’  making  and  have  accrued  due to  a broken system  that  is urgently in need of reform.

“However, fully writing off historic and future high-needs deficits remains critical.”

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “This is a step in the right direction for local authority funding and proves that austerity is a political choice - debts can and should be written off to allow councils to flourish.

“Council workers and communities are still bearing the brunt of years of funding freezes. The money saved by this decision must not only go back into improving services, but also into the hands of council workers who have had years of real-terms pay cuts.”