Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, on what evidential basis she has indicated that she is minded to cancel the Department's support for the development of the proposed Lodge Farm Primary School, Witham; and what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the cancellation on (a) early years provision, (b) primary school places and (c) special educational provision places.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Mainstream projects were evaluated against consistent criteria on the need for places, value for money, and whether they would provide a distinctive or innovative education offer or risk negatively impacting other local schools.
We will invest at least £3 billion over the next four years to create around 50,000 places for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) across England. To support this investment, we are not proceeding with some mainstream free school projects.
For Lodge Farm Primary and Nursery, the review found that current evidence does not show sufficient medium‑term need for a new school in the proposed Witham and Hatfield Peverel location. The trust and local authority can submit any further evidence for ministers to consider by 30 January 2026. The local authority has been offered just over £600,000 additional funding to provide the 12 special educational needs unit places that were planned for this school.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Written Statement of 28 November 2024 on School Funding: Provisional 2025-26 allocations, HCWS 264, what funding has been provided to (a) primary schools, (b) secondary schools and (c) special and alternative provision in (i) Witham constituency, (ii) Essex and (iii) nationally to cover the costs of additional pupils entering the state sector from independent provision as a result of the introduction of VAT and business rate changes to independent schools.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The government announced at Budget a £2.3 billion increase to the core schools budget for the 2025/26 financial year. This funding increase includes funding for mainstream schools and high needs funding for complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Funding for mainstream schools will be distributed to schools following the existing funding formula, which includes consideration of pupil numbers and other characteristics. The funding allocations to local authorities for 2025/26 are calculated using the latest pupil numbers from the October 2024 census.
Local authorities are responsible for securing enough school places for children in their area. We provide capital funding through the Basic Need grant to support local authorities to provide school places, based on their own pupil forecasts and school capacity data. They can use this funding to provide places in new schools or through expansions of existing schools and can work with any school in their local area, including academies and free schools.
Departmental Pupil Place Planning Advisors engage with councils on a regular basis to review their plans for creating additional places and to consider alternatives where necessary. When local authorities are experiencing difficulties, we support them to find solutions as quickly as possible. Where local authorities are failing in their duty, the government will intervene.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Written Statement of 28 November 2024 on School Funding: Provisional 2025-26 allocations, HCWS 264, whether the allocations include provision for schools to cover the additional costs of the employer National Insurance contributions increases from April 2025.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
At Budget, HM Treasury confirmed that all public sector organisations will be funded for the increase in employer contributions to national insurance in the 2025/26 financial year. This included additional funding for schools.
The allocations for the national funding formula for the 2025/26 financial year do not include the additional funding for the increase in employer contributions to national insurance from April 2025.
The department anticipates providing this funding to schools through a separate grant in the 2025/26 financial year. It will provide more information on this, including funding rates and allocations, as soon as practicable.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Written Statement of 28 November 2024 on School Funding: Provisional 2025-26 allocations, HCWS 264, what funding she has provided to (a) primary schools, (b) secondary schools and (c) special and alternative provision in (i) Witham constituency and (ii) Essex.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
At the Autumn Budget 2024, the government announced an additional £2.3 billion for mainstream schools and young people with high needs for the 2025/26 financial year, compared to the 2024/25 financial year. This means that overall core school funding will total almost £63.9 billion next year.
Through the schools national funding formula (NFF), Essex will receive £5,379 per primary pupil and £6,984 per secondary pupil in mainstream schools in the 2025/26 financial year. These per pupil figures will be used to calculate final allocations for 2025/26 through the dedicated schools grant (DSG) in December, based on updated pupil numbers.
The provisional funding allocation for primary and secondary schools in Essex based on the 2024/25 DSG pupil numbers is £642.0 million and £587.2 million respectively. These figures do not include premises funding or growth funding.
The department does not provide school funding figures at constituency level. The individual allocations that schools within Witham constituency will actually receive are determined each year by the local funding formula set by Essex County Council.
Almost £1 billion of the £2.3 billion increase announced at the Autumn Budget 2024 has been allocated to high needs budgets in the 2025/26 financial year, bringing total high needs funding for children and young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities and those in alternative provision (AP) to £11.9 billion.
Of that total, Essex County Council is being allocated a provisional high needs funding amount of over £259 million through the high needs NFF. This represents an 8.9% increase per head of their 2 to 18 year old population, on their equivalent 2024/25 financial year NFF allocation. It is for local authorities to decide how to distribute the funding to special and AP schools in their local area.
Essex County Council will also be allocated extra funding for pay and pensions costs in special schools and AP. This funding is additional to the allocations through the high needs NFF, and the department will confirm shortly how the funding allocations will be calculated.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Autumn Budget 2024, published on 30 October 2024, HC 295, how much SEND funding she plans to allocate to local authorities to (a) cover existing DSG deficits and (b) for future spending pressures.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.
The department is providing an increase of almost £1 billion for high needs budgets in the 2025/26 financial year, bringing total high needs funding for children and young people with complex SEND to £11.9 billion.
The department is providing this increase to high needs funding to help meet the increase in costs local authorities will be facing next year, as they in turn provide support to schools and pupils with SEND. The impact on individual local authorities’ deficits will be variable, and it remains important that every local authority looks at what it can do within the current system to manage its high needs budget while continuing to provide the support that children with SEND need.
The department is now in the process of calculating local authorities’ indicative high needs funding allocations for the 2025/26 financial year, which it expects to publish before the end of November.
High needs budgets beyond the 2025/26 financial year are a matter for the next stage of the multi-year spending review.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding will be allocated to support pupils with SEND in Essex in each of the next five years.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.
The department is providing an increase of almost £1 billion for high needs budgets in the 2025/26 financial year, bringing total high needs funding for children and young people with complex SEND to £11.9 billion.
The department is providing this increase to high needs funding to help meet the increase in costs local authorities will be facing next year, as they in turn provide support to schools and pupils with SEND. The impact on individual local authorities’ deficits will be variable, and it remains important that every local authority looks at what it can do within the current system to manage its high needs budget while continuing to provide the support that children with SEND need.
The department is now in the process of calculating local authorities’ indicative high needs funding allocations for the 2025/26 financial year, which it expects to publish before the end of November.
High needs budgets beyond the 2025/26 financial year are a matter for the next stage of the multi-year spending review.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of the number of Education and Health Care Plans that will be issued for qualifying young people (a) nationwide and (b) in Essex in each of the next five years.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
The number of education, health and care (EHC) plans issued in each local authority area per year is set out in published statistics on GOV.UK and is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/150da0a4-2fef-4836-8c12-08dbe514ee42.
The department does not make estimates of the number of EHC plans to be issued in each local authority in future years. However, as noted in the recent National Audit Office (NAO) report into special educational needs and disabilities, the department does make estimates at a national level. Page 35 of the NAO report notes that the department’s central estimate is that, without policy interventions, the number of EHC plans will nearly double from approximately 518,000 in 2022/23 to just over one million in 2032/33.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she received notice from the Academies Enterprise Trust of its proposed change of name to Lift Schools; and if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of this name change on public confidence in the trust.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
Academies Enterprise Trust informed the department of its intention to change name as part of the department’s regular engagement with them and subsequently confirmed this in writing.
Academy trusts may change their name but must notify Companies House and the department once they have decided to do so.
It is for a trust to determine its name and consider how this affects its public image.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the timescale for the completion of works at each school announced in the School Rebuilding Programme in February 2024.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Schools selected for the school rebuilding programme (SRP) will enter delivery at a rate of around 50 per year. All schools, including those announced in February 2024, have been given individual indicative start dates, so responsible bodies can prepare and make informed decisions around their estate.
Once they have entered delivery, SRP projects have taken on average 3-5 years to complete. We assess the individual timelines at each school once delivery begins.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 8 January 2024 to Question 7553 on Apprentices: Taxation, what the process is for the reallocation of funds in apprenticeship accounts that have expired; and what the destination of those funds were in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The funds in levy-paying employers’ apprenticeship service accounts are distinct from, and operate on a different basis to, the department’s apprenticeships budget. The former represents funding for apprenticeships notionally available for use by individual levy-paying employers over a two-year period. The latter represents the total amount of funding available annually to support apprenticeships in England for all employers, including those who do not pay the apprenticeship levy.
The funds available to levy-paying employers through their apprenticeship service accounts are notionally hypothecated based on their levy contributions over a two-year period. These funds do not constitute a ‘physical’ pot of money; they should be considered more as credit that is available for each levy-paying employer to use if they wish.
When a levy-paying employer has an employee on an apprenticeship, their account will show their available funds being debited each month to reflect the cost of this training and assessment. In parallel but entirely separately, the training provider receives an equivalent value monthly payment directly from the department’s apprenticeships budget. These payments do not actually come from levy-paying employers’ accounts.
Since available funds in each levy-paying employer’s account are notionally hypothecated, there are no monies to ‘reallocate’ when unused funds expire after 24 months. The credit is either drawn down, and equivalent payments separately made to training providers from the department’s annual budget, or expires when not used and the department’s annual budget remains the same). The government expires funds after 24 months because otherwise levy-paying employers would accrue unreasonably large balances, with the potential to create financial commitments that the government has not planned to meet.
On average, 98% of the English apprenticeships budget has been spent over the last two financial years. If the department’s apprenticeships budget is not fully spent by the end of the financial year, funds are returned to HM Treasury in line with standard practice set out in the Consolidated Budgeting Guidance.