Lack Of Staff at Bristol City Council Has Caused Payment Crisis in Bristol ALP

Children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (Send) living in Bristol are finding educational provision is being suspended due to tutors and providers not being paid for their work.

The issue is affecting those who are not in educational placements, relying on Alternative Learning Provision (ALP) such as therapeutic intervention or one to one educational tuition.

It’s been down to a lack of staffing, Bristol City Council claims, which has been leaving providers working without pay in some cases for many months.

Bristol City Council says: ‘The associated teams, within the LA, receive a very high volume of payments to process. We fully acknowledge there has been difficulties with capacity affecting both payments and associated queries. The Officers, across teams, have been working hard to resolve any outstanding queries and/or payment issues experienced.

‘In July, the LA took positive action to improve; 4 Finance Operational Support Officers (3 permanent & 1 temporary) were moved back into the SEND service area. In September 2023, successful recruitment took place for an additional BG10 role specifically dedicated to Personal Budget Direct Payments. In addition, a temporary resource of 1 officer was agreed and is now in post from September 2023 until March 2024.

‘Commitment has been made by all teams to simplify and speed up the payments process whilst continuing to ensure we uphold a compliant and transparent process.’

Despite taking ‘positive action’ in July, some ALP providers report waiting to be paid into September for work carried out since the start of the financial year in April 2023.

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