Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure adequate funding in SEND provision in schools.

Authorities are required to provide mainstream schools with sufficient funds to enable schools to meet the additional cost of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities, up to £6,000. Top-up funding is then provided from local authorities high needs budgets. Nationally, high needs funding is £6.3 billion this year. We recognise that local authorities are facing cost pressures, which is why in December we allocated an additional £250 million across all local authorities up to 2020. Slough will receive £880,000 of this additional funding. This funding will help local authorities to manage their cost pressures. Funding for 2020-2021 and beyond will be determined in the Spending Review.