Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of student debt on the financial security of young people.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the total expenditure on special educational needs in England in 2023–24; and what is their forecast expenditure for 2024–25.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
Local authorities spent £7.9 billion on education for children and young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in the 2022/23 financial year. The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) also allocated a further £1.0 billion on funding for SEND places directly to providers in that financial year. The outturn data for expenditure in the last financial year (2023/24) is not yet available but is due to be published later in 2024. Planned expenditure reported by local authorities for that year was £9.4 billion and the ESFA’s expenditure was £1.1 billion.
These figures do not include the amounts spent by mainstream schools and colleges from their budgets on children and young people with lower level SEND. The department does not collect this expenditure information from individual schools and colleges.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help improve educational outcomes for homeless children in temporary accommodation or experiencing rough sleeping.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
DLUHC is investing £1.2 billion through the Homelessness Prevention Grant over three years, including a £109 million top-up for 2024/25, to ensure that families can move out of temporary accommodation and into stable accommodation, as well as reducing the need for temporary accommodation by preventing homelessness before it occurs.
To help schools tackle the challenges facing disadvantaged pupils, including pupils who might be in temporary accommodation or experiencing homelessness, and to improve children’s educational outcomes, the department has provided pupil premium funding since 2011. Pupil premium funding is increasing to over £2.9 billion this financial year which will ensure that the most disadvantaged pupils receive the support they need to succeed at school.
In 2024/25, the department has targeted a greater proportion of schools’ National Funding Formula towards deprived pupils than ever before with over £4.4 billion of the formula allocated according to deprivation in 2024/25, and over £7.8 billion through additional needs factors based on deprivation, low prior attainment, English as an additional language and mobility. This is alongside various support programmes including free school meals, the National School Breakfast Club programme and the Holiday Activities and Food programme. The department is also targeting support at young people who most need help with the costs of staying in post-16 education and training, through the 16-19 bursary and has extended free meals to disadvantaged 16 to 18 year old students attending further education institutions.
The department is prioritising the attendance of vulnerable children in education, including those who are in temporary accommodation, by introducing stronger expectations of schools, trusts, and local authorities to work together to tackle absence set out in guidance that will become statutory in August 2024, including an expectation on schools to identify at-risk pupils and work with families to support absent students and, from September 2024, introducing a mandatory attendance data tool, allowing them to identify pupils at risk of persistent absence and to enable early intervention.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps are being taken to improve the educational outcomes of children and young people in care; and what estimate she has made of the number of care leavers who are not in (a) education, (b) employment and (c) training.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The needs of the child are paramount when deciding the right care placement. The Children’s Act 1989 places a duty on local authorities to make sure that there is sufficient provision in their area to meet the needs of children in their care and ensure placements safeguard and promote the child’s welfare. Furthermore, the guidance is clear that the child’s allocated social worker, supported by local authority management and resources, should do everything possible to minimise disruption to the child’s education and, where a child is in key stage 4, a move should only be made in exceptional circumstances. Responsibility for looked-after children sits with the local authority. The guidance and regulations of the Children Act 1989 can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1000549/The_Children_Act_1989_guidance_and_regulations_Volume_2_care_planning__placement_and_case_review.pdf.
Every local authority must appoint a virtual school head (VSH), who has a statutory duty to promote the educational attainment of all children in their care. All maintained schools and academies must appoint a designated teacher to act as a source of advice and expertise about the needs of the looked-after children on the school’s roll. Looked-after children also have top priority in school admissions and attract pupil premium plus funding of £2,570 per child, up to age 16. This is managed by the VSH, who works with the child’s education setting to deliver objectives in the child’s personal education plan.
In February 2023, the department announced the national rollout of £24 million of pupil premium plus style funding to looked-after children and care leavers at post-16 for the next two years, from 2023/24. This funding, which builds on an initial £8 million pilot that launched in October 2021, gives VSHs the financial levers to positively impact the educational outcomes of looked-after children and care leavers in post-16 education.
Asked by: Rachel Maclean (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much was spent on (a) education places and (b) home to school transport for SEND (i) children and (ii) adults by local authority in 2023.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Total high needs funding for children and young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is over £10.5 billion in the 2024/25 financial year, which is an increase of over 60% from the 2019/20 allocations. Of this, Worcestershire County Council is due to receive a high needs funding allocation of £90.2 million in 2024/25, which is a cumulative increase of 32% per head over the three years from 2021/22. This funding will help local authorities and schools with the increasing costs of supporting children and young people with SEND.
Local authorities spent £7.9 billion on education for children and young people with complex SEND in the 2022/23 financial year, the latest year for which actual expenditure is available. The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) allocated a further £1.0 billion on high needs funding for SEND places in that financial year. The outturn data for expenditure in the 2023/24 financial year is not yet available, but is due to be published in late 2024. Planned expenditure reported by local authorities for that year was £9.4 billion and the ESFA’s expenditure was £1.1 billion. The data does not enable differentiation between children aged 0 to 18 and adults aged 19 to 25. Individual local authority expenditure information is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-local-authority-school-finance-data.
In the 2023/2024 academic year, a further £592 million of disadvantage funding was allocated through the 16 to 19 funding formula for young people aged 16 to 19, or those aged 19 to 24 and who have an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan. Institutions are free to choose the best ways to use this additional funding and use this, in part, to support disadvantaged students including those with learning difficulties and disabilities.
Local authorities publish information about their expenditure on home-to-school travel for children with special educational needs (SEN) and on post-16 transport for both young people aged 16 to 18 and adults aged 19 to 25 with SEN, learning difficulties or disabilities, but they are not required to specify whether each child, young person, or adult has an EHC plan.
The information collected from local authorities is published on GOV.UK and can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/la-and-school-expenditure. Local authority gross expenditure on SEN transport covering the 2022/23 financial year is set out in the attached table.
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of SEND provision in schools in (a) Suffolk and (b) Suffolk Coastal constituency.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department shares the ambition that children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) should receive the vital support they need.
Where local authorities are failing to deliver consistent outcomes for children and young people with SEND, the department works with them using a set of improvement programmes and SEND specialist advisors to address weaknesses.
In March 2024, the department announced Unity Schools Partnership would run a new special education free school in Suffolk for pupils with severe learning difficulties. This is in addition to the six open special free schools in Suffolk already.
The department is opening over 200 special free schools and, in total, providing over 21,000 places for pupils with special educational needs. Over 10,000 of these places have already been delivered.
A joint local area SEND inspection was undertaken by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission in November 2023. The local area partnership received an outcome of ‘widespread and/or systemic failings leading to significant concerns’. The inspection report was published on 30 January 2024. The Local Area Partnership has since produced a Priority Action Plan which sets out how they will address the two Areas for Priority Action and has also updated its strategic SEND Improvement Plan.
Total high needs funding for children and young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is over £10.5 billion in the 2024/25 financial year, which represents an increase of over 60% from the 2019/20 allocations. Of this, Suffolk County Council is due to receive a high needs funding allocation of £113.9 million in the 2024/25 financial year, which is a cumulative increase of 31% per head over the three years from 2021/22. This funding will help local authorities and schools with the increasing costs of supporting children and young people with SEND.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of SEND provision in schools in (a) Portsmouth and (b) England.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It is the responsibility of local authorities to ensure that there are sufficient school places for all pupils in a local area in mainstream schools and settings for pupils with high needs including special schools and alternative provision (AP).
The department works closely with Portsmouth City Council and Multi Academy Trusts in the area to ensure high-quality provision. In Portsmouth there are five special schools. Of these schools three are rated as outstanding by Ofsted, one is a new school yet to be inspected and one is inadequate, and the department is working with the trust to secure rapid improvement. Several mainstream schools in the city also provide education to children with special educational needs through special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) units and resourced provision.
The last local area SEND inspection by Ofsted and Care Quality Commission for Portsmouth was in July 2019, and the inspection found that professionals across Education, Health, and Care work well in a joined-up way to promote inclusive practice.
Last year the department published the SEND and AP Improvement Plan. This set out the department's plans to establish a new national SEND and AP system that delivers timely, high-quality services and support in mainstream settings, alongside swift access to more local state specialist settings, where required.
The department is investing £2.6 billion since 2022 to deliver new specialist and AP places and improve existing provision. Together with ongoing delivery of new special and AP free schools, this funding supports local authorities to deliver over 60,000 new specialist places and improve the suitability and accessibility of existing buildings.
The department is also increasing high needs revenue funding for children and young people with complex needs to over £10.5 billion this financial year 2024/25 (up 60% over the last five years). Within this total Portsmouth City Council will receive a high needs allocation of over £37 million, which is a cumulative increase of 36% per head over the three years from 2021/22. The extra revenue funding will help with the increasing costs of supporting SEND provision in schools.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to reduce waiting times for SEND services in schools.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It is the responsibility of local authorities to ensure that there are sufficient school places for all pupils in a local area in mainstream schools and settings for pupils with high needs including special schools and alternative provision (AP).
The department works closely with Portsmouth City Council and Multi Academy Trusts in the area to ensure high-quality provision. In Portsmouth there are five special schools. Of these schools three are rated as outstanding by Ofsted, one is a new school yet to be inspected and one is inadequate, and the department is working with the trust to secure rapid improvement. Several mainstream schools in the city also provide education to children with special educational needs through special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) units and resourced provision.
The last local area SEND inspection by Ofsted and Care Quality Commission for Portsmouth was in July 2019, and the inspection found that professionals across Education, Health, and Care work well in a joined-up way to promote inclusive practice.
Last year the department published the SEND and AP Improvement Plan. This set out the department's plans to establish a new national SEND and AP system that delivers timely, high-quality services and support in mainstream settings, alongside swift access to more local state specialist settings, where required.
The department is investing £2.6 billion since 2022 to deliver new specialist and AP places and improve existing provision. Together with ongoing delivery of new special and AP free schools, this funding supports local authorities to deliver over 60,000 new specialist places and improve the suitability and accessibility of existing buildings.
The department is also increasing high needs revenue funding for children and young people with complex needs to over £10.5 billion this financial year 2024/25 (up 60% over the last five years). Within this total Portsmouth City Council will receive a high needs allocation of over £37 million, which is a cumulative increase of 36% per head over the three years from 2021/22. The extra revenue funding will help with the increasing costs of supporting SEND provision in schools.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she plans to take to ensure the safety valve programme supports SEND services in York.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Safety Valve programme is designed to improve special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) services by making the very best use of resources to deliver the support that children and young people need.
The agreements, based on proposals put forward by each local authority, hold local authorities to account for doing so in the most effective and sustainable way for the benefit of children and young people.
The last few years have shown that increased spend does not automatically equate to better outcomes for children and young people; running systems more effectively does. Safety Valve plans generally place emphasis on improving the availability of support in and to mainstream schools, including increasing early access to support, building parental confidence in the system and increasing the availability of local provision. It is only through taking these steps and through the genuine collaboration of all partners locally that high needs systems can be delivered effectively and sustainably for the future.
City of York Council made a Safety Valve agreement in 2021, with the department contributing £17.1 million. The authority agreed to reform their high needs system such that they would subsequently reach a positive in-year balance on its Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) and eliminate its cumulative deficit by the end of the agreement in 2025/26, while continuing to deliver for children and young people with SEND. City of York Council is on track to meet the deficit reduction targets set out in the agreement both for the current reporting year and the lifetime of the plan.
The department continues to provide City of York Council with support through the Safety Valve programme via regular contact with department officials, SEND advisors and financial advisors.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help Leeds City Council increase its capacity to undertake its education, health and care plan assessments.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Where local authorities are failing to deliver consistent outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including failing to produce timely Education, Health and Care (EHC) assessments, the department works with them using a range of improvement programmes and SEND specialist advisors to address weaknesses. Leeds City Council is receiving support from a specialist SEND advisor and the department will continue to work with the local authority in order to monitor the issuing of completed plans.
High needs funding is increasing to over £10.5 billion this financial year, 2024/25, which is an increase of over 60% from the 2019/20 allocations. Of this, through their 2024/25 dedicated schools grant, Leeds City Council is due to receive a high needs funding allocation of £134.6 million in 2024/25. This is a cumulative increase of 36% per head over the three years from 2021/22. This funding will continue to help with the costs of supporting children and young people with SEND, including those with EHC plans.
The department’s ‘SEND and alternative provision Improvement Plan’ recognised the need to reduce delays in children and young people receiving timely assessments and support and has a clear focus on early intervention. Through the Change Programme, in which Leeds City Council is a supporting partner, the department is testing a range of reforms to improve the EHC plan process, including standardised templates and guidance, the use of multi-agency panels to improve decision-making, digital reforms and strengthened mediation arrangements.
The department is further investing over £21 million to train 400 educational psychologists from September 2024. This is in addition to the £10 million currently being invested in the training of over 200 educational psychologists who began their training last September. Since 2020, the department has increased the number of course places funded, from 160 to over 200 per year. As these cohorts begin to graduate, they will enter the workforce, supporting local authority educational psychology services and contributing to statutory assessments.