The lack of transparency surrounding the decision to plough an additional £18.4m into four projects to support children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) has been highlighted at a meeting of county councillors.

The county council had initially allocated £53.8m for four flagship projects in Croxley Green, Hemel Hempstead, Potters Bar and Letchworth Garden City.

But in July, councillors agreed to increase the funding, after being told that without further funding the schools would not be deliverable.

The amount of additional funding was not made public, and the decision was made in a private session of the council's cabinet.

But using Freedom of Information legislation, the Local Democracy Reporting Service has since learned that the amount agreed was £18.4m.

That is an increase of just over a third (34%) – bringing the total budget for the four schemes to £72.2m.

And on Tuesday last month (November 25), Labour Cllr Ian Albert referenced the lack of "transparency" relating to the projects at a meeting of the council's resources and performance cabinet panel.

During a discussion of the council's spending over the past six months, Cllr Albert suggested that it was not clearly reflected in the report's commentary.

And he said he would have expected "more transparency" around what he said was "a really important decision".

He stressed that it was a decision he "welcomed and supported", but he still questioned the level of transparency.

The four projects to benefit from the additional funds include the relocation of the Breakspeare School to a site in Croxley Green and the creation of a satellite suite for the Collett School in Hemel Hempstead.

They also include the construction of the planned Journey's Academy for children with communication needs and autism, in Potters Bar, and the relocation of the North Herts education support centre, in Letchworth Garden City.

Following the meeting, a spokesperson for Hertfordshire County Council said that initially the costs had been reported in private, "due to commercial sensitivity".

But they said that the contracts for Journey's and North Herts ESU had now been published on the council's contracts register, with the budget for Breakspeare in the council's capital monitor for the first three months of the financial year.

"The costs of each project were reported to the relevant council panel in private due to commercial sensitivity," said a spokesperson for Hertfordshire County Council.

"Two of these contracts have now been finalised, Journeys and North Herts ESC and have been published on the council's contract register.

"The uplift to the budget for the expansion and relocation of Breakspeare Special School was reported through the council's quarterly capital monitor."

According to the Q1 capital monitor, which does not name Breakspeare, additional funding of £12.4m was agreed – bringing the revised capital budget for the scheme to £44.1m.

Following the meeting of the resources and performance cabinet panel, Cllr Albert stressed that he was supportive of the projects, but that there could have been greater transparency.

And he suggested that, as well as being put before the education SEND and inclusion cabinet panel in July, it could have been presented to the council's resources and performance cabinet panel too.

He said: "I do believe that the paper should have been discussed by the resources panel as well as education because it has implications for capital spend, borrowing and investment."

He said that he understood why, when the decision was taken, the increases in costs of each project may have had to be discussed in private, pointing to the need to negotiate with contractors.

But he also suggested that the overall cost of the four projects could have been published by the council in July.

And he said he expected further information to have been included in the performance report presented at the latest meeting of the resources and performance cabinet panel.

"It still wasn't transparent at this latest meeting, and that concerns me," said Cllr Albert.

"It's important for residents to know what's being spent in totality, even if they don't need to know a specific amount at an individual school until we have come to an agreement with contractors."