Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department's White Paper entitled Every child achieving and thriving, updated on 27 April 2026, if she will set out how the proposed targeted layer of support for children with SEND will differ from the existing support provided by teaching assistants to pupils who require additional help.

The department is investing £1.6 billion in an Inclusive Mainstream Fund to support the development of a more inclusive education system. Over £500 million per year will be provided to early years, schools and colleges to boost their existing core funding for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) to help them strengthen their inclusive offer.

Settings should deploy funding to help build an inclusive core offer, based on the commonly occurring needs and barriers to learning and participation faced by their cohort and to support the delivery of evidence-based targeted support for those who need it.

Targeted support may include small group interventions based on evidence-informed strategies and approaches to alleviate persistent barriers to learning, delivered by school staff. Targeted plus support will include support from external experts including speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, as well as signposting to specialists from Alternative Provision or Specialist settings, delivered through a new Experts at Hand service. We are investing around £1.8 billion over the next three years for local area partnerships, including local authorities and integrated care boards, to develop a new ‘Experts at Hand’ offer, strengthening mainstream education through access to health and specialist education support.

We will roll out a new national training programme supporting educators to identify and respond to children’s needs backed by £200 million investment, to train staff across nurseries, schools and colleges with the first wave of training materials coming online from September.