Cornwall Council backs Rosie Moore on fairer SEND funding

Every party in the chamber found something to agree on this week, and it was about money for Cornwall’s children. Cornwall Council has today, 21 July, unanimously backed a cross-party motion calling for fairer education funding and stronger support for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), sending a united message to Government that the current system does not work for rural counties like Cornwall.

The motion, titled “Supporting SEND Reform Through Fair School Funding”, was proposed by Rosie Moore and seconded by James Ball, with support from councillors Chris Batters, Nicola Boase, James O’Keefe, Rory Gow, Ruther Gripper and Faye Emery. It passed with backing from all sides of the chamber.

At its heart is a demand for the Government to review the National Funding Formula, and the High Needs National Funding Formula that sits alongside it, so that future funding better reflects the realities of delivering education in a large, rural and coastal county.

What the motion calls for

The motion commits the Council to write to the Secretary of State for Education seeking a meeting, alongside representatives of the f40 group where appropriate, to make the case for fairer education funding for Cornwall.

It asks the Government to ensure the funding formulae recognise three things in particular: the additional challenges faced by rural and coastal communities, the importance of maintaining small schools, and the increased cost of delivering inclusive and SEND provision across rural areas.

The Council also resolved to establish a Cornwall Education Funding Roundtable. Convened by the Leader of the Council, it would bring together Cornwall’s MPs, education leaders, academy trusts, governors, diocesan representatives, SEND partners, parent representatives and the f40 group to develop and champion a shared, cross-party case for reform.

Officers have also been asked to prepare a concise Cornwall evidence base covering rurality, school sustainability, SEND demand, home-to-school transport, workforce challenges and High Needs Block pressures, to underpin the Council’s national lobbying.

‘Cornwall is fully united’

Commenting after the vote, Rosie Moore said:

“I’m incredibly pleased that councillors have backed my motion today. It sends a clear message: Cornwall is fully united in standing up for children and young people with SEND, as well as their families and the schools that support them.

“We have really ambitious plans to improve outcomes for children across Cornwall, but those ambitions must of course be matched by proper funding that recognises the realities of delivering education in rural areas like ours. With the passing of this motion, I’ll now be working closely with colleagues from across the Council to make that case loud and clear to Government.”

North Cornwall MP Ben Maguire welcomed the result, adding:

“I’m delighted to see Cornwall Council come together behind Cllr Moore’s important SEND motion, on a really vital issue for parents, carers, and pupils here in Cornwall.

“Cornwall’s schools have been expected to deliver more for SEND pupils, while grappling a funding system that doesn’t really reflect the additional challenges of delivering in rural areas. If the Government is as serious about improving SEND provision as they say, and giving every child the best possible start in life, it must absolutely ensure its funding system properly supports those ambitions.”

Why it matters for Cornwall

The motion lands at a significant moment for the county. Cornwall has recently submitted its SEND Reform Plan, which sits alongside its wider inclusion, alternative provision and commissioning strategies and sets out an ambitious programme to improve outcomes for children and young people, strengthen inclusion, and keep support as close to home as possible.

But councillors argue that local authorities are being asked to deliver far-reaching reform while working within funding arrangements that were never designed for the current scale of SEND demand. Those pressures, rising demand, workforce shortages and increasing costs, are felt especially acutely in rural and coastal areas, where schools serve dispersed communities and recruiting specialist staff can be particularly difficult.

Small schools are a recurring theme. In Cornwall, many act as anchors for their communities, and the Council warns that financial pressure on them can have consequences reaching well beyond the classroom, affecting the long-term resilience of the villages and towns they serve.

The National Funding Formula was introduced in 2018 to create a fairer, more transparent system for distributing education funding, replacing a patchwork of historic local arrangements. Although it has been updated annually, many rural authorities continue to argue that it still fails to reflect the additional cost of serving spread-out communities, sustaining small schools and delivering SEND provision across large geographical areas.

Cornwall has long campaigned on the issue through the f40 group, which represents historically underfunded local authorities and on whose Executive Cornwall is represented. Cornwall MPs from different political parties have also played active roles in the group’s leadership.

The Council will now write to the Secretary of State for Education seeking a meeting. Whether that meeting is granted, and what the Government says in reply, remains to be seen.