Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to (a) help ensure that children with special educational needs and disabilities can access, (b) ensure adequate funding of and (c) reduce delays in the delivery of specialist services.

This department and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) are working together to take a joint approach to Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) workforce planning, in recognition of the demand for specialist services. The department has established a steering group to oversee this work. In order to establish the stronger evidence base needed to inform this work, DHSC published a specification for their research into demand and supply of therapy for children and young people with SEND on 19 September.

Alongside this, in partnership with NHS England, the department is funding the Early Language and Support for Every Child pathfinders within our £70 million Change Programme. The alternative provision (AP) specialist taskforces programme is also testing a new model, embedding teams of specialists such as mental health therapists and family workers in 22 AP schools.

Education funding for specialist SEND services comes from the department’s high needs budget, which is allocated mainly through the high needs block of the dedicated schools grant to local authorities. High needs funding will increase to over £10.5 billion in 2024/25, an increase of over 60% from the 2019/20 allocations. This funding will help local authorities with the increasing costs of delivering specialist services for children and young people with SEND.

The department is also investing £2.6 billion between 2022 and 2025 to fund new special and AP places and improve existing provision, including announcing 41 new special free schools. This transformational investment will support local authorities to deliver new places in mainstream and special schools, as well as other specialist settings, and will also be used to improve the suitability and accessibility of existing buildings.