Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce inequalities in SEND funding between local authorities.

This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.

Following the Autumn Budget 2024, the department is providing an increase of £1 billion for high needs budgets in England in the 2025/26 financial year. This brings total high needs funding for children and young people with complex SEND to over £12 billion. Of that total, Hertfordshire County Council is being allocated over £207 million through the high needs funding block of the dedicated schools grant (DSG), an increase of £17.6 million on the 2024/25 DSG high needs block, calculated using the high needs national funding formula (NFF).

The structure of the NFF is largely unchanged for 2025/26, as the government takes the time needed to consider what changes are necessary, both to make sure that we establish an equitable education funding system that directs funding to where it is needed, and to enable improved support for children with SEND.