Safety Valve Agreements -how they impact disabled children and their families
5 mins read
Thursday 16 May 2024
What are Safety Valve agreements?
Some local authorities in England with large budget deficits have been signing up to Safety Valve agreements over the last three years. They get extra funding from government by agreeing to reduce their debts and manage their high needs funding in specific ways that the Department for Education requires. There are currently 38 local authorities with safety valve agreements.
Why we are concerned
Contact raised concerns about safety valve agreements with the Department for Education in 2023. We believe the agreements risk pushing local authorities to cut Special Educational Needs (SEN) funding. The agreements include a review system to ensure that financial targets are met, with little to no obligation to review how the cuts are made and if the Special Educational provision which remains is adequate to meet needs.
A report published by IPSEA at the weekend highlights the worrying consequence of the agreements. IPSEA’s report shows that the conditions attached to individual safety valve agreements are about cost cutting. As such there is a concern that they could lead to local authorities breaching their legal duties to children and young people with SEND.
The council documents from the safety valve areas that were examined by IPSEA all had references to:
- A reduction in Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs)
- A need to reduce “inappropriate referrals” for seeking EHCP assessments.
- A target to reduce the number of pupils with EHCPs who attend a specialist setting by 29%, transferring them to a mainstream schools.
The negative impact for children and young people with SEN
One of the first councils to sign up to a safety valve agreement has been condemned by inspectors over its “failing” SEND services.
Mainstream schools are also negatively impacted by these safety valve agreements, as in some areas there has been a reduction in the top-up funding that schools receive for pupils with SEND who do not have an EHCP. A headteacher of a secondary school in a safety valve area told tes magazine that this has meant that the school is less inclusive. .
What we would like to see
We support IPSEA’s conclusion that safety valve agreements, which centre on cost cutting rather than the needs and legal rights of disabled children and young people, cannot be allowed to continue to exist in their current form. Contact will be monitoring the situation closely and would love to hear from you if you have any experience. If you live in a Local Authority that has signed a safety valve agreement and have anything to share, please contact [email protected]
Local authorities with Safety Valve agreements
Below is the list of Local Authorities with Safety Valve Agreements as of May 2024.
1. Barnsley
2. Bath & NE Somerset
3. Bexley
4. Blackpool
5. Bolton
6. Bracknell Forest,
7. Bristol,
8. Bury
9. Cambridgeshire
10. Croydon
11. Darlington
12. Devon
13. Dorset
14. Hammersmith & Fulham
15. Haringey
16. Hillingdon
17. Hounslow
18. Isle of Wight
19. Kent
20. Kingston-upon-Thames
21. Kirklees
22. Medway
23. Merton
24. Norfolk
25. North Somerset
26. North Tyneside
27. Richmond-upon-Thames
28. Rotherham
29. Salford
30. Slough
31. South Gloucestershire
32. Southwark
33. Stoke-on-Trent
34. Surrey
35. Torbay
36. Wiltshire
37. Wokingham
38. York
