Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what comparative assessment he has made of the funding gap between how much in funding (a) local authorities have spent on disabled children’s health and care services and (b) the Government has so allocated to local authorities for those services (i) before and (ii) after the start of the covid-19 outbreak.

The government has not made an assessment of local government expenditure on disabled children’s health and care services in comparison to funding allocated over the period referenced. The government is clear that the responsibility for, and management of local government funding lies with local authorities, who are best placed to determine their priority needs. However, supporting local government to meet the health and care needs of all children and young people, particularly the most vulnerable, remains a priority.

Since 2019-20, the government has provided additional funding for adults’ and children’s social care via the social care grant, giving £1.7 billion this year. In addition to the social care grant, the government made available an increase in Core Spending Power in England from £49 billion in 2020-21 to up to £51.2 billion in 2021-22, a 4.5% increase in cash terms. This recognised the resources councils need to meet their pressures and maintain current service levels, including for disabled health and social care services.

The department is providing an additional £730 million of ongoing high needs funding for educating children and young people up to the age of 25 with complex special educational needs and disabilities, during the financial year 2021-22. This means that the total high needs funding allocation will have risen by nearly a quarter in two years to over £8 billion this year.

Total support committed to councils in England to tackle the impacts of COVID-19 is over £12 billion. Over £6 billion of this is unringfenced, in recognition that local authorities are best placed to decide how to meet the major COVID-19 pressures in their local area.