The Children and Families Act 2013 was set out to reform provision for children and young people, bringing together all education services to ensure they had access to the opportunities most appropriate to them.

On the ground, however, the switch to the new system has been fraught with difficulties. Last month, Tes reported hundreds of students hoping to attend specialist further education colleges from September were yet to learn whether they will receive the necessary funding from their local authority.

Now it has emerged that general FE colleges, too, are facing difficulties. Collectively they say they are owed millions of pounds in funding for students they have already enrolled. Some colleges have decided to dip into their reserves to take on learners whom local authorities are refusing to fund.

Local authorities, in turn, say that the new system imposed by the government has left them with insufficient funding.

High-needs funding applies in case of students whose provision costs £6,000 or more, and those aged 19 to 25 who have a learning difficulty assessment (LDA) or an Education Health and Care (EHC) plan.

FE and sixth-form colleges and approved specialist post-16 institutions now have to cooperate with local authorities on arrangements for young people with SEND and to admit a young person if, following consultation with the institution, the institution is named in an EHC plan.

But colleges are saying delays to funding agreements and overall shortfalls often leave them short-changed, with some missing out on hundreds of thousands of pounds. Some £696,000 in high-needs funding for the 2016-17 year is owed to East Kent and Canterbury colleges, according to principal Graham Razey.

Local authorities are increasingly assessing individual students’ needs to fall just short of £6,000, meaning the authority is not responsible for funding their education, Razey claims.

“Anyone who has not accessed high-needs support in the past cannot access that now, which feels counter-intuitive,” he says. “There are many young people who go through the system without being diagnosed. I will have to be at battle, going forward, to make sure my college gets that funding.”

Liz Maudslay, policy manager for students with language and learning difficulties and disabilities at the Association of Colleges, says there has been an increase in reports of colleges receiving insufficient funding for their learners and delays in authorities notifying colleges about funding availability.

AoC chief executive David Hughes says it’s “not uncommon” for colleges to fund places themselves. “Colleges try to do the right thing, but they also have to take some risk. We are really concerned about… whether there is enough cash in the system,” he adds.

Natspec, which represents specialist providers for students with learning difficulties and disabilities, says local authorities are not prioritising spending on high needs students, resulting in the demand for places in mainstream and specialist provision going unmet.

“This leaves colleges in an impossible position, not knowing how many students they will be funded for, and having to keep staff and services on standbys,” says chief executive Clare Howard, with the amount of money spent on appeals and tribunals also a concern.

Richard Watts, chair of the Local Government Association’s children and young people board, says councils are working hard to make sure children with SEND get support. “However, councils are involved in implementing a complex set of reforms, which have been established by government at a time of limited resources and rising demand.

“We were clear from the outset that the SEND reforms in the Children and Families Bill were underfunded by the government and that more needed to be done to ensure funding was made available,” he adds.

According to a Department for Education spokesperson, local authorities must follow “clear timescales” for making decisions, and a “centrally administered funding system combined with a locally run assessment system would be counterproductive”.

The DfE has provided £223 million over four years to fund the reformed system, the spokesperson adds, and is “closely tracking their progress to ensure colleges and schools are making the provision required, and that young people are getting the support they need.”