Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will publish modelling underpinning its projection that EHCP growth will slow by 2029–30 and then fall.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department has made modelling information available in the ‘Background on projections’ annex published alongside the special educational needs and disabilities consultation. These projections are illustrative of our proposed policy approach and updated projections will be published following the consultation.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her proposals for SEND reform, if she will give assurance to adopters and special guardians that their children, a majority of whom require active in-school additional support, which is currently funded through a patchwork of Pupil Premium Plus at school level and by individual EHCPs, will have their particular needs taken account of in her Department’s decisions on this issue.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
As part of our reforms, we will ensure children get the right support in their early years setting, school, and college. We will do this by investing in new training for all staff, early intervention, better buildings and equipment, and making sure that every setting has access to expert professional support when it is needed.
The department's consultation ‘Adoption support that works for all’ sets out a vision for more predictable, joined up support for adoptive and kinship children, including stronger multi-disciplinary work across social care, health and education. The consultation runs until 5 May 2026 and the outcomes and next steps will be published later this year. For adoptive special guardianship children, this forms an important backdrop to the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) proposals. More details on the consultation are available here: https://consult.education.gov.uk/adoption-and-special-guardianship-support-fund-team/adoption-support-that-works-for-all/supporting_documents/adoption-support-that-works-for-all-consultation-document-feb-2026pdf.
Alongside this, Individual Support Plans will be developed by settings, parents and young people, giving every child or young person receiving targeted or specialist support a clear and consistent record of their needs. This will be backed by £1.6billion funding flowing directly to schools, colleges and nurseries to meet needs earlier and get support in place, as part of the £4 billion more we are investing over three years.
We also want families’ voices and experiences to shape SEND policy and local delivery, ensuring families can influence decision-making around the support they receive. Nationally we will improve access to services by increasing investment in the national helpline. Additionally, we will continue to work with and expand parent carers in strategic partnership roles to support system-wide improvements.
We are consulting on the reforms proposed in the recently published “SEND reform: putting children and young people first”, and you can access the consultation here: https://consult.education.gov.uk/send-strategy-division/send-reform-putting-children-and-young-people-firs/.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure access for pre-school children with additional needs to nursery places in (a) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The government wants every child, including those with additional needs, to be able to access a childcare setting where they can get the best start in life. The special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reforms we announced in February will give early years settings the training, evidence-based tools and expert input they need to welcome children with diverse needs into their settings and provide the right support from day one. We are investing over £200 million to strengthen the SEND offer in Best Start Family Hubs, including funding a family-facing practitioner in every hub to join up support across early years settings, health visitors and SEND teams. The Best Start Family Hubs will begin rolling out in April 2026.
Alongside this, the department will work with local authorities, including local authority officers in Lincolnshire County Council, to strengthen their childcare sufficiency planning for children with SEND and improve data on the availability of suitable places, giving parents greater confidence that their children can access the early education and childcare they are entitled to.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of SATs on levels of school attendance of children with SEND.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department has not identified evidence that SATs have a specific or disproportionate impact on the attendance of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Internal analysis indicates that overall attendance patterns for pupils with SEND remain consistent during the SATs assessment period.
Primary assessments are extensively trialled and reviewed by teachers and SEND specialists to ensure they are suitable for all and of appropriate difficulty, with modified papers and access arrangements available for pupils with SEND where needed.
The department’s ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance makes clear that pupils with SEND have the same right to education and the same attendance ambition as their peers, and that schools and local authorities should provide appropriate support to enable their attendance, including during assessment periods.
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Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether safeguards will be introduced to help ensure that Individual Support Plans (ISPs) do not become resource‑led documents due to limited specialist provision.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) Code of Practice sets out that the provision made for pupils with special educational needs should be recorded accurately and kept up to date. As a result, many settings already keep records of the needs and provision required by children or young people with SEND and communicate these with parents.
The department is introducing a duty on settings to produce an individual support plan for every child or young person with SEND, ensuring help keeps pace with their development, prevents challenges from escalating, and reduces the risk of them disengaging from learning.
Additional funding through an Inclusive Mainstream Fund will be provided to early years, schools and colleges to boost the existing core funding for SEND, with over £500 million per year over the next three years. This funding, alongside their existing core funding, will help equip settings to invest in high-quality, adaptive teaching, targeted evidence-based support, inclusive pedagogy and decision-making, and create safe, calm and accessible learning environments for all. On 25 March, we published the guidance ‘Inclusive mainstream fund: best practice for schools’, which provides examples and case studies of how settings can use this funding to enhance support for children with SEND. The guidance is available at:
Our proposed reforms go further to support educators, with easier access to expert advice through Experts at Hand and evidence-based tools and resources through the National Inclusion Standards.
Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the contract for the National school breakfast club programme prohibits the use of ultra-processed cereals and breads; and if she will set out the nutritional and processing specification of that contract.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The National School Breakfast Programme (NSBP) is an inherited scheme from the previous government and the contract will end in July 2026. The contract with the supplier Family Action stipulates that all food available for schools to purchase must meet the School Food Standards, which already restrict foods high in fat, salt and sugar, as well as low-quality reformed or reconstituted foods. To ensure quality and nutrition in meals for the future, we are revising the School Food Standards and are engaging with experts across the sector.
This government is committed to delivering a free breakfast club in every state-funded school with primary-aged pupils in England. All NSBP schools with primary-aged pupils will have the opportunity to transition onto the free breakfast clubs programme from September 2026. NSBP secondary schools will be provided with continued support at an equivalent value to what they receive on the NSBP for the 2026/7 academic year. Further details for secondary schools will follow shortly.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what learnings she has taken from the PESP rollout in Australia when developing the commitment to the digital parenting offer contained in the BSIL strategy.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The Best Start in Life strategy sets out the government’s commitment to widening access to high-quality, evidence-based parenting and home learning environment support. This will help ensure that families receive the interventions most effective in supporting children’s early development and reducing disparities before they reach school age.
The department remains focused on ensuring that parenting support in England is informed by strong evidence and aligned with the needs of families. We will continue to take a careful, evidence-led approach to future decisions. This includes tracking emerging practice in the UK and internationally, including learning from Australia’s programmes.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how SEND costs in England will be funded over this Parliament.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Overall, core schools funding (including funding for mainstream schools and high needs funding for young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)) is increasing by £1.7 billion in the 2026/27 financial year, and will total £67.0 billion, compared to £65.3 billion in 2025/26. High needs funding will be over £12 billion in England in the 2026/27 financial year, following a £1 billion increase in 2025/26. The additional funding announced at the 2025 Spending Review will deliver an above-real-terms per-pupil increase up to the 2028/29 financial year and enable us to transform the SEND system. Moreover, departmental budgets will increase above previously planned funding at Autumn Budget 2025 by £3.5 billion in 2028/29 to support investment in the SEND system.
In our recent publication ’SEND reform: putting children and young people first’, we announced a £4 billion investment over the three years of the spending period to make every school inclusive and transform outcomes for children with SEND. This investment includes over £1.6 billion for the Inclusive Mainstream Fund, £1.8 billion for Experts at Hand, £200 million for Best Start Family Hubs and over £200 million for a national training package. More details can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/send-reform-putting-children-and-young-people-first.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the aggregate monetary level of Dedicated Schools Grant High Need deficits that will not be written off by central Government.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department has set out plans to address these deficits up to the end of 2025/26, providing grants to cover 90% of each council’s deficit once they have produced and received approval for a strong plan to drive sustained action in accordance with our new system set out today in the Schools White Paper. This will help to improve outcomes for children and bring costs under control through effective early intervention, stopping needs from escalating. Asking authorities to contribute the remaining 10% reflects the shared responsibility we all have in delivering a system that provides value for money and supports better outcomes for children and young people.
For deficits that arise in 2026/27 and 2027/28, local authorities can expect that we will continue to take an appropriate and proportionate approach though it will not be unlimited. Future support will take into account local authorities' successful delivery of their approved Local SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) reform plan.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her department has made an assessment of the potential merits of extending the eligibility criteria for free childcare for working parents to include postgraduate research students.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
It is our ambition that all families have access to high-quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, giving every child the best start in life and delivering on our Plan for Change.
Parents of students are eligible for the universal 15 hours of free early education which is available to all three and four-year-olds regardless of family circumstances.
Students who work in addition to studying may be eligible for 30 hours free childcare if they meet the income requirements. PhD stipends are non-taxable income and therefore do not count towards the income requirements of the 30 hours childcare entitlement.
The government recognises the value of parents continuing in education and provides a range of support for students in higher education to assist them with childcare.
Through the Student Loans Company, the department offers a specific Childcare Grant (CCG) to support students with the costs of childcare whilst they are in study. The CCG offers parents support of up to 85% of their childcare costs up to a maximum of £183.75 a week for one child and £315.03 for two children. CCG support is provided to individuals where both parents are students, the student is a lone parent, or the student parent’s partner is on a low income. The government has no plans to extend CCG to postgraduate research students.