Special Educational Needs: Finance

(asked on 25th February 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of ring-fencing funding for low incidence high needs children, including those with a vision impairment to ensure that resources go directly to the children to (a) meet their needs and (b) ensure they are fully supported.


Answered by
Nadhim Zahawi Portrait
Nadhim Zahawi
This question was answered on 4th March 2019

We believe that the decisions about the level of support required by individual children, and how much funding will be required to provide that support, are best taken by the child’s school or other education provider who works most closely with them and their parents and is therefore best placed to gauge what they need.

The special educational needs and disabilities reforms in the Children and Families Act (2014) have enabled greater personalisation of support through the use of a personal budget to provide children’s parents and young people with choice and control over the design of their care and education package. The personal budget is a sum of money made available by the local authority at the request of a parent or young person if it is clear that, without this additional funding, it will not be possible to meet the child’s learning needs.

Part or all of the personal budget payment can be paid directly to the family as a direct payment. This can be used for anything that achieves the child’s outcomes in their education, health and care plan, out of school activities, overnight short breaks or group activities supported by a personal assistant. It can also be used for targeted support such as specialist teacher services, sensory impairment support or speech and language therapy.

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