Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made a recent assessment of the ability of local authorities to adequately fund SEND education.

Core schools' funding is £4 billion higher this year than last year, and the additional funding announced at the Autumn Statement means it will rise by another £3.5 billion, on top of that, next year. Taken together, that means a 15% increase in funding in two years.

For those children with the most complex needs, the department announced in July 2022 that we would be increasing high needs funding by £1.65 billion over two years, between the 2021/22 and 2023/24 financial years. This is an increase of 21% and will bring total high needs funding to £9.7 billion by the 2023/24 financial year.

The department will also allocate additional funding following the £2 billion funding increases announced in the Autumn Statement. The department will set out our plans for the allocation of this additional funding shortly. This extra funding, on top of significant increases already announced, demonstrates that schools are a key priority for the government, especially in the context of the wider fiscal challenges we are facing. The extra funding will help local authorities and schools with the increasing costs of supporting children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Local authorities and schools have the flexibility to decide how they spend their funding allocations, as the department believes that they are best placed to decide what provision is required locally, in order the deliver their statutory duties under the Children and Families Act 2014, to support children and young people with SEND.