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Cash-strapped councils are urging the government to intervene over spending on independent special schools as new analysis shows that some local authorities are set to spend up to 58 per cent more on private places this year.

Local authorities are calling for the government to cap the profits and charges being made by private special schools and to ensure that more state special school places are available, amid concerns about rising spending.

Figures from 16 local authorities that entered into “Safety Valve” agreements with the government reveal that they are set to spend £29 million more this year on commissioning spaces at private special schools, ����Vlog analysis shows.

This is a 13 per cent increase across one financial year for the councils in question.

Councils with the largest high-needs spending deficits have been entered into Safety Valve agreements, which involve them receiving initial government funding while introducing changes aimed at bringing their spending on special educational needs and disabilities provision into balance.

Figures obtained from 16 local authorities show that spending on independent special schools is set to increase this year in 14 of them.

Council and education leaders are now urging the government to take action to bring down spending on independent special schools. The calls come as ministers are expected to announce plans for SEND reform in a new Schools White Paper “within weeks”.

Spending on private special schools

Local authorities are required to secure the special educational provision specified in an education, health and care plan (EHCP) for a student.

When places in state-funded mainstream, special or alternative provision schools are unavailable or unsuitable, local authorities are often left with independent special schools as the only choice.

Margaret Mulholland, SEND and inclusion specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “The big issue here is the lack of suitable special school places.

“In order to reduce the pressure on the system, we need to improve early intervention and better resource mainstream schools to support more children with special educational needs. We also have to ensure that there is appropriate, high-quality specialist provision for those children who require this extra level of support.”

����Vlog contacted 38 councils that had entered into Safety Valve agreements for information about their spending on independent special schools.

Collectively, the 16 councils that provided figures spent £220 million in 2024-25 and are forecast to spend £249 million in 2025-26.

In one area spending is set to increase by more than 50 per cent. Figures from Slough show spending rising from £2.4 million to £3.8 million this year - an increase of 58 per cent. It is one of five areas where spending is set to increase by more than a fifth this year.

Norfolk County Council is set to increase its spending by £6 million, from £54.7 million to £61.4 million - a 12.3 per cent rise.

A spokesperson for the council told ����Vlog: “The national funding model was built around the lower costs of maintained and academy special schools and is wholly inadequate for the much higher fees in the independent sector.”

Dorset County Council is forecast to spend £3 million more on private special school places than last year.

The council said that it wants to see the government introducing measures to “prevent excessive profit-making”.

“The council does not support excessive profit-making at the expense of the public purse and investment in services for children,” it added.

The London Borough of Bexley, with its spending set to increase by £1 million, also called for the government to intervene.

“We hope that the long-awaited, promised SEND reforms will go some way to addressing this position, including the capping of any profits or charges, and the wider availability of specialist school places,” a spokesperson said.

North Somerset Council, forecast to spend an additional £1.8 million on independent special school places this year, said that private schools should charge at the same rate that local authority special schools are funded at.

“Now that the government has added VAT to independent schools, it would also help if there were a national cap on what councils have to pay per place,” it said.

Local authorities have also reported an increase in the number of places they are commissioning at independent special schools. Eleven of 15 councils that provided data are commissioning more places in 2025-26 than they did in 2022-23.

Cambridgeshire County Council is forecast to commission 576 places in independent special schools in 2025-26, compared with 349 in 2022-23.

While a spokesperson for the council said that it welcomed a “mixed economy of provision”, they told ����Vlog that planned increases to the council’s own provision “may lead to a reduction in demand for placements in independent special schools in the future”.

Matt Wrack, general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union, said: “In 2024 Labour promised the ‘biggest wave of insourcing of public services in a generation’. This should not be left as an empty slogan.

“The government needs to act on this pledge and should end profiteering in education. It should develop a plan to ensure all future provision for children with SEND is within the public sector and accountable to local communities.”

Profit cap ‘wouldn’t solve the problem’

The Liberal Democrats have previously called for private companies providing SEND provision to have their profits capped, after finding that equity firms running the settings have made combined annual profits of £100 million.

Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU teaching union, told ����Vlog that independent special schools should be “nationalised”, voicing concerns about a “national scandal”.

However, Claire Dorer, chief executive of the National Association of Special Schools, which represents independent schools, questioned whether a profit cap would make a significant difference to most councils’ SEND spending.

“If local authorities wish to use the independent sector less in the future, they need to ensure that children’s needs can be met successfully at a much earlier stage than they currently are,” Ms Dorer said.

She also raised concerns about taking a sector-wide approach to capping profits.

“The independent sector is diverse and features charitable and commercial providers. A blanket profit cap on independent schools is a crude approach...I haven’t seen anyone calling for a profit cap who sets out their terms of reference clearly,” she added.

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