Council faces bankruptcy over SEND reform roll-out

Bristol City Council must roll out reforms to special needs education to avoid being bankrupted, the council's chief executive has warned.

Its education budget is £56m overdrawn – a figure that is expected to rise to £114m by 2028.

The government has agreed to write off £54m of deficit, as long as it follows conditions on reforming SEND support.

Council chief executive Stephen Peacock said: "If we get this wrong, we will be effectively bankrupt."

Demand for extra support for children with special educational needs and disabilities has grown across the country and in Bristol in the past decade.

If Bristol is rejected from the Department for Education's bailout programme, the council would face the prospect of making cuts to services, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) said.

If that was not possible, it would have to issue a Section 114 notice, which would effectively declare the authority as bankrupt, The LDRS added.

Councils elsewhere in the country such as Woking, Nottingham and Birmingham issued the notice last year.

During a council meeting on Monday, council bosses faced questions about the Safety Valve SEND bailout programme.

Mr Peacock said: "It's one of our biggest issues.

"If we get this wrong, we'll be effectively bankrupt, and so will 50 other places.

"So we have to have a go at this."

Conservative councillor Geoff Gollop said: "The deficit could potentially wipe out the whole of the authority's reserves, and more.

"There's example, after example, after example of wrong decisions, and we've heard from parents of the trauma they've been through.

"How can we be convinced that this is now right?

"My goodness, the potential for this going wrong could result effectively in bankruptcy for the authority."

Neither Bristol's Mayor Marvin Rees, nor the cabinet member for education, Labour councillor Asher Craig, attended the scrutiny session to answer questions.

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