Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how the value of funding for each child with an education, health and care plan is calculated.

An education, health and care (EHC) needs assessment ensures that a child or young person’s needs are assessed in a joined-up way across education, health and social care services.

The assessment process must identify if the child or young person has any special educational needs, together with any relevant health or social care needs. If the local authority then decides to issue an EHC plan, it must set long term outcomes for the child or young person and specify provision which will deliver those outcomes. The local authority is then statutorily required to secure the special educational provision specified in the EHC plan.

Local authorities provide additional funding to mainstream schools when the costs of the specified special provision exceed £6,000 per pupil per annum, and also fund children and young people with EHC plans in special schools and other settings. Local authorities have a degree of discretion as to how their high needs budget is allocated to those schools and other settings for those with EHC plans, and use different methods to calculate the allocations.