Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure special needs places are available for all children who have a statement of need; and if she will make a statement.

We will invest at least £200 million in places for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities that have education, health and care plans. We will distribute this funding to local authorities in England to support them to provide new places and improve facilities in both mainstream and special schools. This is over and above the basic need funding that we allocate to local authorities to support them to provide new school places. Local authorities are also free to use basic need funding to invest in places for pupils with special needs and disabilities where they identify that to be where the need is greatest.

We will allocate this funding to local authorities in England and we will say more about this in 2017. Education is a devolved matter, meaning that the Northern Ireland Assembly is responsible for pupil place policy in Northern Ireland.