Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of directly providing a proportion of SEN funding to schools.

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

Overall schools funding is increasing by £3.2 billion in the 2025/26 financial year and will total over £64.8 billion, compared to almost £61.6 billion in the 2024/25 financial year.

Local authorities are required by regulations to identify for each of their mainstream schools an amount, sometimes referred to as a notional budget, within their overall budget, which helps the school understand what might be required to meet the additional cost of supporting pupils with special educational needs, up to £6,000 per pupil per annum. Local authorities, working with their schools, calculate this amount using proportions of their local formula factor values in accordance with regulations. Most authorities use a combination of funding from the basic entitlement factor, the deprivation factors, and the low prior attainment factors in their local formula.

Local authorities also support schools with SEND support costs in excess of that £6,000 threshold, by allocating funds directly from their high needs budgets.