THIRSK’S MP has met with the Education Secretary to lobby for extra resources for children’s services in North Yorkshire.

Kevin Hollinrake held a meeting with Education Secretary, Damien Hinds MP, to make the case for more funding for the region.

The local authority is under significant financial pressure with an £11m overspend on children’s services this year, most of which is attributable to extra responsibilities required by Westminster.

The Children and Family Act 2014 introduced Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), which raised the expectations for what councils would need to do to support children with special educational needs.

The money for this was based on an historic formula that is not keeping pace with rising demand; each EHCP costs £8,000 leading to an overspend of over £6m.

Demand for EHCPs have increased from 1,747 in 2014/15 to 2,550 at the end of 2017 and the forecasts show this increasing further.

The costs must be met and County Council lead Carl Les said: “At North Yorkshire County Council we have been innovative in our approach to the extent that Ofsted have given us the first outstanding rating in the country.

“But the quantum is increasing too, almost exponentially, and innovation can maintain the standards of service, but we need serious help to deal with the rising demand”.

Mr Hollinrake said: “North Yorkshire is the 12th lowest-funded authority on a per pupil basis out of 150 for high needs.

“At my meeting, I pressed the Secretary of State to update the formula and see a fairer amount of funding allocated to my constituency.”

High needs and school funding are funded by the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) and these reserves are under severe pressure in North Yorkshire.

The meeting gave Mr Hollinrake the opportunity to highlight the financial pressure the County Council is under due to insufficient DSG, which falls under the remit of the Department for Education.

The council’s chief executive, Richard Flinton, said: “Funding to support young people with special educational needs and disabilities should be based on an up to date assessment of need and not an out of date historic formula that is currently the situation.”