Challenges that pushed Wokingham Borough Council to apply for emergency funding are affecting local authorities around the country, its top official has said.

The council was recently given a £6.3 million bailout grant as part of the government’s Safety Valve programme. This is a fund specifically designed to tackle council overspending on special educational needs and disabilities – known as SEND – services.

The council’s chief executive Susan Parsonage said Wokingham was one of more than 80 councils to have been awarded the funding. She pointed to an increase in both the demand for SEND services, and in the number of children with complex needs.

She said: “We’re one of over 80 councils that have been part of Safety Valve. So this particular risk around SEND is something that’s been experienced right across the country where we’ve got an increase in demand, an increase in complexity.

READ MORE: Pressure on SEND services pushed Wokingham council to seek urgent cash

“I think there’s a £2.3 billion national deficit in SEND, and the government have invested £986 million in their safety valve programme.”

Parsonage was speaking at a meeting of the council’s Audit Committee on Wednesday, June 7. Council auditors have listed the outcome and cost of its SEND provision as being a “high-risk” concern due to the pressures on the service.

Liberal Democrat councillor Mike Smith asked why the grant – which will go towards building two new specialist schools – didn’t appear to have reduced the risk.

Parsonage replied that the external factors hadn’t been reduced, and the new schools may mitigate the risk once they had been built.