Two Lancashire local authorities have spent more than £48m over the last five years sending children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) to private schools, according to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests submitted by LancsLive.

The investigation covered Blackpool Council and Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, two similarly-sized local authorities, and aimed to find out how much they had spent in the last five years on private school fees for children with SEND.

In total Blackpool Council spent £22,371,714 on private school fees for SEND pupils while Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council spent a total of £24,856,184.

The cash spent in each of the last five years varies with the number of pupils involved rising and falling and schools charging different amounts in fees.

In 2020/2021 Blackpool Council spent £3,729,100 for 98 pupils, £3,495,123 in 2021/2022 for 89 pupils, £3,790,422 for 91 pupils in 2022/2023, £5,078,230 for 103 pupils in 2023/2024, and £6,278,839 for 127 pupils in 2024/2025.

The 40 schools which Blackpool Council has sent children to in the last five years include many in the Lancashire area as well as some in Cumbria, with the furthest away school being New College, a boarding school in Worcester, which is 150 miles away from Blackpool town centre and where fees for residential students range from £50,000-£60,000.

Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council sent pupils to a total of 37 schools. The vast majority are in Lancashire, with a handful in Wigan, Manchester, and Cumbria.

One of the schools is Birtenshaw, which has campuses in Bolton and Merseyside, where fees range from £56,940-£85,644.

Some of the private schools are ‘mainstream’, and not specialist schools for SEND pupils, such as Oakhill School in Whalley.

When a local council in England has an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) for a child or young person, they are legally required to pay fees for the education or training specified in the EHCP.

And, if a local authority names an independent school in the EHCP, they are generally required to pay for all related costs, including fees, VAT, and boarding and lodging.

Although the Government introduced VAT on private school fees in January, costs for children with a local authority EHCP, which names their specific school, will continue to be exempt.

However, there are an estimated 6,500 children who have special educational needs, but who do not have EHCPs, and therefore their parents are responsible for paying fees.

The FOI probe comes after the National Audit Office (NAO) published a report in October 2024 that concluded that the ‘Government needs to think urgently about how its current investment can be better spent’, given that SEND children cost £10bn a year in total.

In response to the introduction of VAT on private school fees, a judicial review of the policy has been brought by three separate groups, including parents of children with SEND and low-paying faith schools.

In April, Jeremy Hyam KC, representing two children with SEND who attend private schools, told the High Court it was ‘not fair’ to remove vulnerable children from a school where their needs are met, to an environment where they are not met, without ‘weighty justification’.

A final decision from the High Court will be published at a date to be confirmed.

Richard Harris, a retired teacher from Lancaster who worked at several SEND schools in other parts of the country, explained that councils’ hands are tied when it comes to paying fees for pupils with special needs.

He told LancsLive: “Councils are legally obliged to pay fees when a child has an EHCP so this isn’t a cost they choose to incur.

“And the problem is that, because pupils with SEND require specialist education, they can’t always attend mainstream schools, private or otherwise, although some will do.

“Because SEND schools offer very tailored, often one-on-one care, they cost more than mainstream private schools.

“The problem we’re seeing is that, because the number of pupils classed as having special educational needs is increasing, so too is the cost to local councils and the Government and that is something which, in the vast majority of cases, won’t be impacted by the introduction of VAT.

“However, there are also thousands of SEND pupils who don’t have an EHCP and therefore their parents will have to fund private fees if they want to send their child to a specialist school and they will have to pay VAT.

“It’ll certainly be interesting to see the outcome of the judicial review because there is the argument that those children specifically are being discriminated against for having a disability which obviously isn’t right.

“At the very least there is the case for arguing that the fees for those children shouldn’t include VAT. But the wider picture is something that the Government needs to consider because, VAT or not, those fees cost an enormous amount of money and it’s only going to keep rising.”