3 days ago
Dispute over £450,000 'missing' SEND funds amid anger
Parents of disabled children in Suffolk say £450,000 of SEND funding has gone missing as a dispute with the council has led them to ask: "Where has the money gone?"
Emma Eveleigh, who lives in Needham Market with her two disabled children, carried out a freedom of information request to Suffolk County Council.
It showed that the number of family service staff members in the SEND department had reduced from 78 in April 2023 to 73 members in April 2025.
This comes after the Local Democracy Reporting Service reported that £450,000 had been allocated to increase the family services team on February 2024.
Mrs Eveleigh, who is also a Campaign For Change member, noted that the data also shows that the five new staff added since last year were "only temporary members".
Emma Eveleigh and her husband Chris have two special needs children. (Image: Emma Eveleigh) Meanwhile, opposing data brought forward by Suffolk County Council presents that the full SEND team has increased from 100 to 164 members in the three years, while they say role allocation is "complex".
However, Mrs Everleigh said: "This is a distraction aimed at muddying the waters.
"Where has the money gone? That's the real question.
"They've promised us it's going into the family service, but it clearly hasn't.
"It makes you feel really misled, angry and despondent
"Nothing's really improving."
She added that she repeatedly contacted the deputy cabinet member for SEND, Deborah Richardson, about the issue, but she ignored her questions and deleted Facebook comments.
Councillor Andrew Reid, Cabinet member for Education and SEND at Suffolk County Council. (Image: Suffolk County Council) Andrew Reid, cabinet member for education and SEND at Suffolk County Council, said: 'I strongly refute the claim of financial mismanagement – we remain a financially well-run council, despite exceptional demand challenges in Children and Young People Services.
'Over the last year, we have spent £136million on delivering SEND services.
"This spend includes improving how we deliver services and employing more staff.
'SEND reform is incredibly complex and in desperate need of Government redesign across all local authorities."
Steven Wright, father and member of Campaign for Change (Image: Steven Wright)
Steven Wright, father of two disabled children in East Bergholt and another campaigner, also argues the services have been "poorly managed".
He added that his recent Freedom of Information request for an audit report on the department's finances was rejected, amid concerns of "financial mismanagement".
This is after a recent audit report for 2023/2024 outlined a "risk of significant weakness" in the value for money category for Suffolk's SEND services.
He said: "We're constantly told that there's not enough money, but then sometimes it looks as if the funding they do have doesn't seem to be managed properly."
