Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of trends in the level of funding for SEND education on people with SEND.

The department recognises that the current system does not consistently deliver the outcomes we want and expect for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), their families or the people and services who support them. On 29 March 2022, the department published the SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Green Paper, which sets out our plans to improve the experience and outcomes for children and young people with SEND and those who need AP, within a fairer and more financially sustainable system.

The consultation closed on 22 July 2022. The department is currently reviewing the feedback we received and are using this, along with continued engagement with the system, to inform the next stage of delivering improvements for children, young people and their families.

The department will continue to support the system in the immediate term to deliver change, and continue to improve the experience and outcomes for children and young people with SEND and those who need AP.

High needs funding has increased by over 40% from 2019/20 to 2022/23, and 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 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 SEND.