What is the Delivering Better Value in SEND programme?

Delivering Better Value (DBV) in SEND is a Department for Education programme, run with Newton Europe and CIPFA, helping 55 councils make high-needs SEND more sustainable, with grants of up to £1m each (2023-24).

What DBV actually is

DBV is an improvement-and-sustainability programme, not a funding settlement. The DfE delivers it with two partners: Newton Europe, a consultancy, and CIPFA, the public-finance institute. The original commission was a roughly two-year contract worth about £19.5m, and participating councils were brought on in three tranches. The work runs in two phases. Phase One was diagnostic: each area reviewed its own high-needs caseload and built a bespoke improvement plan. That phase is complete. Phase Two is implementation, where councils deliver those plans, supported by a shared national toolkit. Councils that reached Phase Two could apply for an implementation grant of up to £1m to fund the changes (per the DfE's 24 November 2023 grant determination letter).

One figure trips people up. The 55 in the snippet is the number of participating councils across all tranches. A separate, smaller figure appears in the reform evidence: Newton Europe's Phase 1 Insight Summary (2024) drew on 1,650 case reviews across 48 of the 54 areas in the diagnostic cohort. Both are correct; they count different things.

How it differs from Safety Valve

This is the distinction an LA audience most needs and the one most explainers miss. DBV is the broader, lighter-touch programme. It offers diagnostic support and an implementation grant, but it does not impose the legally binding deficit-reduction conditions that Safety Valve agreements carry. Safety Valve is a negotiated deal: in return for additional funding the council signs up to binding conditions to bring its Dedicated Schools Grant deficit down. DBV does neither. Framing DBV as a bailout or a deficit-clearance deal is therefore wrong, and worth correcting in a board paper before it sets the wrong expectation.

• Nature: DBV is voluntary improvement support; Safety Valve is a funded agreement with conditions attached.
• What the council commits to: DBV commits you to delivering your own improvement plan; Safety Valve commits you to a binding deficit-reduction trajectory.
• The money: DBV offers an implementation grant up to £1m; Safety Valve provides deficit funding tied to milestones.

Why this matters now

DBV's Phase 1 insights are no longer just a local exercise. They now feed directly into the 2025-26 SEND reform programme, with the Schools White Paper (February 2026) and the Education for All Bill flagged in the King's Speech. Reform proposals under discussion include Individual Support Plans and narrowing EHCPs toward the most complex needs over the coming decade. Alongside that, the DSG statutory override has been extended to March 2028, with a commitment to absorb most historic DSG deficits. So DBV is best read as one strand of a live reform direction, not a standalone scheme. The figures, phases and reform links all sit inside a moving programme, so confirm them against the latest DfE position before they go into a published paper.

This page is general information for local-authority finance and SEND officers, not legal or financial advice. For the current position, check the DBV in SEND programme site and the latest DfE SEND reform publications.

This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.