THE council is forking out thousands of pounds for children with additional needs to access education outside of Halton. 

At a schools forum meeting last Wednesday, January 16, education officers revealed that around 76 children from Halton with higher needs are being educated or looked after outside the borough because there is not a suitable provision in the area.

Ann McIntyre, a representative on the panel, said this was costing the council between £30,000 to £60,000 per child, putting a huge strain on the higher needs budget.

She said there were a number of reasons why children are placed out of the area, but that developing the borough’s own specialist provisions would help reduce these costs in the long run. 

The forum heard that plans are in place to improve the special education needs (SEN) provision in Halton include establishing a specialist placements team, which would include a SEN commissioner, to help find suitable placements for children.

Ms McIntyre said this could include making mainstream schools ‘more inclusive’ and equipping them to deal with children with additional educational needs, by working with teams such as behavioural support services. 

The council officer said: “The long-term aspiration is that we would want to bring people back into the borough through a couple of ways.

“Not putting children in specialist provision in the first place, i.e making schools more inclusive, is one way.

“Then we have to make sure that we have got the right sort of specialist provision within the borough.

"We want to look at our capacity and resilience in schools and other educational settings.

“We have got to make sure we have the right sort of specialist resources in house, decide what are thresholds are and when they should be breached.

“We need to invest in our own borough rather than in others.”