
Bristol: Judicial review begins over special needs bailout
A judicial review in the High Court case has begun over a government bailout of £54m for special needs education funding in Bristol. Last year, Bristol City Council entered into a deal with the Department for Education to receive extra money to help pay off a financial deficit caused by an increase in demand for special educational needs provision, or SEND. As part of the agreement, known as a Safety Valve, the council agreed to reign in its spending, which parents feared would lead to less support for their children.Bristol City Council said it would not comment on the case while proceedings were ongoing.
In the last few years, there has been a large increase in the number of children designated as having special educational needs in Bristol.This has led to spiralling costs, as the council has struggled to find suitable school places for children with education, health and care plans (EHCP), which it is legally obliged to provide.Thirty seven other councils around the country have entered into Safety Valve deals with the Department for Education.Bristol City Council stands to get £54m over seven years, but this equates to a 25% cut in its spending on SEND.The council was previously found to have broken the law by a judge in 2018, who ruled that cuts to its SEND budget then were illegal.
'Golden ticket'
The case has been brought by Watkins Solicitors, who are representing a family from Bristol.Managing partner of Watkins, Beverly Watkins, told the BBC: "It is so difficult, many of these parents had to give up work, they're looking after kids 24-hours-a-day. "They don't want a golden ticket or special treatment, all they want is appropriate provision to meet the needs of their children. "There is a chronic shortage of special schools and the idea that you can simply place the kids in mainstream schools is not a good one and will not work."SEND campaigner Jen Smith said: "Bristol has a really long history of not getting this right."We're all very concerned because it will affect children now and in the future, the impact could be devastating," she added.A judgement in the case is expected later this year.
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BBC News
8 hours ago
- BBC News
Spending Review: How much did schools, transport and the NHS get?
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Falling pupil numbers means the department can make some savings, but that money still has to pay for an awful government is staring down the barrel of ever-growing demand for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) support. The Spending Review does not seem to address deficits racked up by councils supporting those children, but it does appear to have set aside around £700m to reform the schools on the government's rebuilding programme - many still waiting for builders - will also be wondering if a £2.4bn annual cash injection will suffice. Will funding for NHS be enough? The 3% annual real-terms increase in NHS spending announced by the chancellor will look generous to departments with low or no number covers day-to-day spending by the NHS, for example staff pay and the costs of medicines and patients care. The overall annual increase for the Department of Health is 2.8%, which includes other areas like medicines regulation and pandemic preparedness, as well as the is worth pointing out that the health service needs real-term spending growth every year to cope with an increasing and ageing population alongside rising bills for medicines and new treatments. The long-term trend for annual UK health spending in recent decades has been around 3.5%.Aside from day-to-day funding there is also capital spending, which covers investment in buildings and equipment. The new allocation will be just 1% in real-terms per year. The big question is whether that will be enough to enable staff to deliver more operations and of Labour's pledges is to ensure more than 90% of patients in England start treatment within 18 weeks of referral. Currently it is less than 60%. Hitting that target is a big ask with all the other claims on spending. Transport upgrades won't come quickly "We are happy bunnies" is how someone from the Department for Transport reacted to the Spending investment in transport infrastructure is clearly central to Labour's plan for "national renewal", so a good chunk of the chancellor's speech was devoted to various upgrades. Some we already knew about, some we didn' include a new Liverpool to Manchester rail line, a freeze on the £3 cap on bus fares in England until March 2027 and more than £15.6bn on new trams, trains and buses outside of Conservatives say a lot of this is just rehashing of old announcements with little detail attached. The government says it will lay some meat on the bones of these plans next week in its so-called "infrastructure week".Apart from bus fares, which is a continuation of an existing policy, Reeves' plans are in keeping with the general theme of this Spending Review: ambitious but ultimately not materialising for quite some time - until the 2030s at the earliest. Seven ways the Spending Review affects youWhat has the chancellor has announced? The key pointsWatch: Where the money is being spent 'Game changer' for social housing You could almost hear the sigh of relief from social landlords when £39bn was announced for social and affordable housing. Many had warned that without significant funding and certainty, the government would never reach its target of building 1.5 million homes over this they've called Wednesday's announcement a "game changer". Guaranteeing how much social landlords will receive in rents over the next 10 years means that housing associations can plan how much they have to invest in charity Shelter called the investment a "watershed moment". The charity's head of policy, Charlie Trew, said the amount was 70% more than the previous government invested but it was still not enough to end homelessness for good. The charity called for a "clear target" for exactly how many social rent homes are planned. Police and border questions remain A 2.3% real terms yearly funding increase for policing in England and Wales is slightly better than senior officers had feared, but forces are already warning of "some ruthless prioritisation", arguing that most of the money will be "swallowed up" by police pay chancellor stressed that an increase of "more than £2bn" will mean government pledges on cutting crime and increasing police numbers can be immigration, there is more money for the Border Security Command, rising to £280m extra a year, with promises of new kit including an army of drones to improve surveillance. Reeves also promised that the use of hotels for asylum seekers would end by with overall Home Office spending being cut by 1.7% a year, there are knotted eyebrows at how this is all going to add up and be achieved while managing a sizeable squeeze to the department's budget. Prison money shows severity of crisis Just recently we were told that offenders recalled to prison would be let out earlier due to overcrowding. We know the government is planning on building three more prisons to deal with the capacity chancellor said £7bn would be spent on that building project - that's more than we were told earlier this month, when the figure stood at £ increase in funding indicates the severity and urgency of the problem. But building more prisons will take announced was £700m to reform the probation service - that cash will fund further recruitment on top of the 1,300 officers the government had already said it will employ this probation officers welcomed the investment but raised concerns about their "increasing workload" and when the new hires will be functional.


The Sun
12 hours ago
- The Sun
All the winners and losers in today's spending review – from pensioners to parents… everything you need to know
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SCHOOL MEALS Half a million more kids will be entitled to free school meals under a massive expansion of the scheme. Expanding free school meals will save parents on benefits £500 per child every year, according to the Department for Education. Kids in UC households currently not eligible will be able to start claiming lunches from the start of the 2026 school year. Meanwhile, more than 750 free breakfast clubs will be rolled out across the country. Defence The Chancellor unveiled a major hike in defence spending today, raising it to 2.6 per cent of GDP by 2027 — up from the previous 2.5 per cent pledge. She confirmed an £11bn boost for the Ministry of Defence and £600m for the UK's intelligence services, calling it essential in an 'age of insecurity.' An additional £6bn will be spent to upgrade nuclear submarine production, which will support thousands of jobs across Barrow, Derby and Sheffield. Ms Reeves said: "The investment will deliver not only security, but also renewal." NHS The NHS will benefit from a whopping £30bn cash boost for day-to-day spending. The technology budget for the health service has been raised by 50%. A mega £10bn will be invested into dragging the NHS into the digital age, including improving the app. Transport The Chancellor confirmed a £15bn package to 'properly connect' Britain's towns and cities The cash includes upgrades to buses in Rochdale, stations in Merseyside and Middlesbrough, and mass transit in West Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear, Birmingham and Stockport. She also announced a four-year settlement for Transport for London, a fourfold increase in Local Transport Grants, and a £3.5bn boost for the Transpennine Route Upgrade. A further £2.5bn is going into East-West Rail and new funding was confirmed for the Midlands Rail Hub and £445m for Welsh railways. Pensioners The Chancellor confirmed that over three quarters of pensioners will receive the Winter Fuel Payment this year, as part of efforts to ease the cost of living. She also pledged to cut bills in future winters through an expanded Warm Homes Plan, including £30m for Blackpool, £11m for Rugby, and £7m for Bradford. To help families now, the £3 bus fare cap will be extended until at least March 2027, and school uniform costs will be capped. She said: "I know that for many people the cost of living remains a constant challenge. "Which is why we are capping the cost of school uniforms. "And I can tell the House today that I am extending the £3 bus fare cap until at least March 2027. "Earlier this week, we announced that over three quarters of pensioners will receive the Winter Fuel Payment this year. "And there is more, to get bills down not just this winter but in winters to come, we have expanded the Warm Homes Plan to support thousands more of the UK's poorest households, including providing £7 million to homes in Bradford; £11m to homes in Rugby; And £30m to homes in Blackpool." Nuclear Energy The Chancellor has pledged the "biggest roll-out of nuclear power for half a century" - with a £30bn commitment to clean, homegrown energy. She confirmed £14bn for Sizewell C to power six million homes and create over 10,000 jobs, including 1,500 apprenticeships. An extra £2.5bn will fund Small Modular Reactors with Rolls Royce as the preferred partner, and a further £2.5bn will go into nuclear fusion in Nottinghamshire. LOSERS POLICE Despite a major lobbying effort by police chiefs, spending power for forces will only rise by an average 2.3% per year in real terms. The £2bn funding hike has been slammed as no where near enough to meet pledges from the government to halve knife crime and end violence against women and girls. commitment of putting 13,000 additional police officers, PCSOs and special constables into neighbourhood policing roles across England and Wales. FARMING Family farms will continue to be clobbered by a 20% inheritance tax raid. Environment Secretary Steve Reed has had to accept funding for farms will be reduced, money restricted to just a small number. Meanwhile, DEFRA hasn't manage to secure huge funding for flood defences. EDUCATION Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has been forced to accept a major squeeze on school spending in the years ahead. Head teachers will have to raid existing budgets to help fund a 4 per cent pay rise for staff next year. Ministers have pledged £615m to help pay for the rise - but that will only cover around three quarters of the cost.


BBC News
2 days ago
- BBC News
Almost 40,000 children in East Yorkshire to get free school meals
Almost 40,000 children in Hull and East Yorkshire will receive free school meals after the government expanded the September 2026, families receiving Universal Credit will be eligible regardless of their income. Currently, they need to earn less than £7,400 a year to to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the change means that an extra 10,390 children in the Hull East constituency will get the area's Labour MP Karl Turner described it as a "huge step forward". In a social media post, Turner added it was "making life more affordable for struggling families and ensuring kids have the nutrition they need to thrive".Elsewhere in the city, in the Hull North and Cottingham constituency, 8,920 children will be able to claim and in Hull West and Haltemprice, 7,150 will be able to eat for free during the school the East Riding parliamentary constituencies, Beverley and Holderness will see 3,560 extra recipients, Bridlington and The Wolds 4,860 and Goole and Pocklington 4,020 the change would mean an additional 500,000 children will become Department for Education has set aside £1bn to fund the change up to to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.