Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate he has made of the number of school places available for children with special educational needs (SEND) in (a) SEND schools and (b) mainstream schools; and what plans he has to ensure the adequate provision of such places to meet demand.

In January 2018 local authorities placed 124,886 pupils with education, health and care plans in mainstream schools and academies, and 111,387 pupils in maintained special schools.

The Children and Families Act (2014) requires local authorities to work with parents, young people and providers to keep the provision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities under review, including its sufficiency.

Local authorities are also able to commission new schools (both special and mainstream) via the free school presumption route, drawing on the basic need and special provision capital funding sources. The department has allocated £265 million of capital funding (over and above basic need funding) to help build new places at mainstream and special schools, and to improve existing places to benefit current and future pupils. We have recently launched a free schools wave, which allows local authorities to set out their case for why a new special free school would benefit their area. We expect to announce the successful local authority areas in early 2019.