A county councillor has written to the Government to call for fairer funding for schools.

Councillor Janet Higgins, Cabinet Member for Education and SEND at Staffordshire County Council, has urged the Government to tackle long-standing inequalities in the way funding is shared out after it was revealed the county receives some of the lowest levels in England for schools and for support for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

She said: "Every child in Staffordshire deserves the best possible start in life and the support they need to achieve their full potential.

"Our schools, teachers and support staff do a fantastic job, but they are being asked to do more and more with less funding than many other areas of the country receive.

"The number of children and young people needing SEND support continues to grow. We as a council are investing in local provision and working hard to improve services, however the current funding system simply is not fair to Staffordshire.

"As a large rural county, we also face additional costs, particularly home to school and SEND transport, that are not fully recognised. We need a funding system that reflects real need and gives every child the same opportunities, regardless of where they live.

"I am asking the Government to look again at how funding is allocated and work with councils like Staffordshire to create a fairer system that supports children, families and schools both now and in the future."

More than 10,000 children and young people in Staffordshire currently have Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs).

A SEND Reform Plan for Staffordshire has recently been submitted to the Government and the proposals were considered at the latest meeting of the Safeguarding and Education Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Councillor Higgins said: "As we know, the SEND reforms are long overdue. While we welcome the Government's commitment to deal with the crisis in SEND and their direction of travel towards greater inclusive support at mainstream, early intervention and a focus on the early years, it's important to ensure that sufficient funding is in place so that the reforms can be successfully implemented.

"At the heart of our plan is a clear ambition that children and young people with SEND in Staffordshire receive the right support, at the right time, as close to home as possible, and within a system that is early, local, fair, effective and shared.

"This means strengthening inclusive practice across education settings, improving access to specialist advice and local provision and ensuring that partners across education, healthcare, families and the voluntary sector work together with clear accountability.

"To support this, the SEND Reform Plan sets out how we will develop the 'experts at hand' offer for all education providers over the next couple of years, which will include working with health partners to provide additional support, as well as our special schools expertise, along with our educational psychologists and specialist teachers.

"But I must stress that education providers across Staffordshire are currently struggling to meet the needs of all pupils after a series of challenging funding settlements – Staffordshire is funded less than many other councils and it's important we address that.

"Funding is one of the main challenges we face as a council and we cannot deliver a service to provide the right support if the funding is not there to enable it. We are the 18th lowest-funded local authority for funding per mainstream pupil, and sixth lowest-funded per pupil allocations in the High Needs Block.

"We are pleased the Government has announced a High Needs Stability Grant to tackle 90% of historic High Needs Deficit.

"While this is welcome, it will leave the council with a remaining liability which is estimated to be at least £10m, and we are unclear how the funding forecast deficit that sits within the current financial year and the following financial year will be addressed."

Councillor Victoria Wilson said: "I think early help is absolutely key here. It doesn't seem to me that anything we've done has managed to reduce the numbers we're talking about here.

"We're kind of fighting against the tide it feels like. It doesn't seem that anything we've done has been able to address the issue and I feel that's a national thing, not just this local authority.

"I was interested to hear we are the 18th lowest-funded authority. What is the possibility of us using some reserves to deal with that issue, or do you think we're going to see an increase in funding?"

Tim Moss, the council's Assistant Director for Inclusive Education and Learning, said: "This all started back in 2014, around the changes to the SEND Code of Practice and the changes from Education Statements into Education, Health and Care Plans.

"We're currently at nearly 11,000 (children and young people with EHCPs) and the trajectory isn't due to end at any time within the life of our current SEND Reform Plan, numbers continue to increase.

"Contributions from reserves currently isn't possible under the current regulations. There will be at some point a requirement to address the £10m deficit, but we're not sure what happens in the current financial year and the next financial year when we're expecting significant deficits and how the Government seek to address those."

Councillor Antonia Orlandi-Fantini asked: "When you've put this plan into place in a year's time, what do you expect to be different? As a parent, I would like to know what will change in a year?"

Mr Moss said: "We hope to have additional key workers or EHCP co-ordinators who are working with those EHCPs, communication with families will be better enhanced because there will be more of them. The plan is to increase the capacity there.

"We're hoping to have established some of our enhanced resource bases, so we will start to see some of those youngsters being able to access some of that provision within our mainstream schools.

"Our expectations are we will have support colleagues who will be able to support individual settings around meeting the needs of individual children in their schools."