Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to allocate new (a) funding and (b) resources to support children with special educational needs and disabilities in schools.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
High needs funding for children and young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is over £10.5 billion in 2024/25, which is an increase of over 60% from the 2019/20 allocations. Of this, Sefton Council is due to receive a high needs funding allocation of £47.8 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, both mainstream and special schools, with the increasing costs of supporting children and young people with SEND.
In addition, on 22 May the department published 2024/25 allocations of the Teachers’ Pay Additional Grant, which helps schools with the costs of the 2023 teachers’ pay award, and the 2024 Teachers’ Pension Employer Contribution Grant, which helps schools with the increased employer contribution rate from April 2024. This funding totals £1.9 billion in 2024/25 and is to support schools with the costs of their teachers, and therefore contributes to the resources that are available for schools’ pupils with SEND.
In March 2024, the department also published just under £850 million of High Needs Provision Capital Allocations (HNPCA) for 2023/24 and 2024/25. This funding is allocated to local authorities to support them deliver new places and improve existing provision for children and young people with SEND or who require alternative provision (AP).
This funding forms part of the department’s transformational investment of £2.6 billion in new high needs provision between 2022 and 2025 which, when combined with the department’s ongoing delivery of new special and AP free schools, is creating over 60,000 new specialist places across the country.
In total, Sefton Council has been allocated just over £9.7 million through HNPCA between 2022 and 2025.
This funding can be used to deliver new places in mainstream and special schools, as well as other specialist settings, and to improve the suitability and accessibility of existing buildings.
In addition to local authority allocations, 201 special free schools are either open or planned to open in future years. Once at capacity, these schools will provide over 21,000 places for pupils with special educational needs. Over 10,000 of these places have already been delivered.
This includes 56 special free schools being delivered as part of the £2.6 billion of high needs capital funding received in the 2021 Spending Review, plus additional funding announced at the 2024 Spring Budget.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 17 April 2024 to Question 20858 on Schools: Veterans, what steps her Department plans to take to increase the number of people taking up the undergraduate teaching bursary for veterans.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The £40,000 tax free undergraduate veteran teaching bursary is available to veterans who have left full time employment from the British Army, Royal Air Force, or Royal Navy and enrol on an eligible undergraduate initial teacher training (ITT) course. The bursary is paid over the final two years of the course with £20,000 payable in each year. Veterans who have a degree can undertake postgraduate ITT courses where they can access the bursaries and scholarships of up to £30,000 available on these routes into teaching.
The department remains committed to promoting opportunities for service leavers and veterans, including supporting their journey into teaching in primary, secondary and further education through its broad support services and bursaries. Since the publication of its commitments in the ‘Veterans Strategy Action Plan 2022 to 2024’, the department has ensured that there is tailored support available for the veteran community including dedicated teacher training advisers, webpages, case study blogs on the Get Into Teaching website and information in Civvy Street publications. More information on this support can be found at the following links:
The department also collaborates with the Career Transition Partnership and British Forces Resettlement Service to provide bespoke webinars, and presence at regional employer fairs. More information about these can be found at the following links:
The department regularly engages with international governments to share best practice on how to attract and retain talented teachers from all backgrounds and on how to support all teachers in their career journeys. The department’s digital services that manage the ITT application process have been designed to be as user friendly as possible and have been extensively tested with a diverse range of potential applicants to ensure they help remove barriers to great teachers applying for ITT courses.
Asked by: Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the special schools eye care service has adequate funding to enable the long-term commissioning of those services.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has committed to invest up to £12.7 million annually on the provision of sight tests and associated optical vouchers in special educational settings. This represents an approximate 87% increase compared to the current budget. This additional investment has the potential to increase coverage from 4% of special educational settings to 100%. NHS England has already engaged with the Optical Fees Negotiating Committee, which includes the Association of Optometrists.
Asked by: Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will hold discussions with the Association of Optometrists on the adequacy of funding for the special schools eye care service.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has committed to invest up to £12.7 million annually on the provision of sight tests and associated optical vouchers in special educational settings. This represents an approximate 87% increase compared to the current budget. This additional investment has the potential to increase coverage from 4% of special educational settings to 100%. NHS England has already engaged with the Optical Fees Negotiating Committee, which includes the Association of Optometrists.
Asked by: Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will hold discussions with the Association of Optometrists on the adequacy of funding for the special schools' eye care service.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has committed to invest up to £12.7 million annually on the provision of sight tests and associated optical vouchers in special educational settings. This represents an approximate 87% increase compared to the current budget. This additional investment has the potential to increase coverage from 4% of special educational settings to 100%. NHS England has already engaged with the Optical Fees Negotiating Committee, which includes the Association of Optometrists.
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: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support children with special educational needs in the London Borough of Havering.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is committed to ensuring that children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in all areas, including Havering, receive the support they need to realise their potential.
The ‘SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan’ outlines the government’s mission to create a single, national SEND and alternative provision system. The proposal to develop National Standards is a fundamental part of this. The Standards will outline the types of special educational provision that should be available, who is responsible for delivering that support, and will clarify the expectations on mainstream settings and local services.
These standards will help families, practitioners and providers understand what support every child or young person should be receiving from early years through to further education. By the end of 2025, the department will publish a significant proportion of the National Standards. As these Standards will apply nationally, the London Borough of Havering is automatically included.
In addition, high needs funding for children and young people with complex needs is increasing by £440 million, or 4.3%, in 2024/25. This will bring total high needs funding to over £10.5 billion, which is an increase of over 60% from the 2019/20 allocations. This funding will help local authorities and schools with the increasing costs of supporting children and young people with SEND. Additional funding for teachers’ pay and teachers’ pensions is on top of this. Havering will receive an allocation of £43 million through the 2024/25 Dedicated Schools Grant, to support children and young people with complex educational needs and disabilities. This is a cumulative increase of 33% per head over the three years from 2021/22.
Havering is also taking part in the Delivering Better Value in SEND Programme (DBV in SEND). The DBV in SEND Programme aims to help local authorities provide more effective SEND services by meeting the needs of children and young people at an early stage and with the right level of support.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of funding for schools in (a) Newcastle upon Tyne Central constituency, (b) Newcastle upon Tyne and (c) the North East since 2010.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
This government is committed to providing a world class education system for all children and has invested significantly in education to achieve that.
Including the additional funding for teachers’ pay and pensions, funding for both mainstream schools and high needs nationally is £2.9 billion higher in 2024/25, compared to 2023/24. The overall core school budget will total £60.7 billion in 2024/25, the highest ever level in real terms per pupil. This means school funding is set to have risen by £11 billion by 2024/25, compared to 2021/22.
The department cannot provide funding comparisons for the Newcastle upon Tyne Central constituency, Newcastle upon Tyne, or the North East back to 2010, as comparable data is not available. However, at national level, school funding will be 5.5% higher in real terms per pupil in 2024/25 compared to 2010/11 when using the GDP deflator measure of inflation which is based on independent Office for National Statistics and Office for Budget Responsibility data, the routine measure of public spending. The additional 2024/25 pensions funding is provided on top of that.
Mainstream schools in Newcastle upon Tyne Central Constituency are attracting an extra £3.8 million in 2024/25 compared to 2023/24 through the schools national funding formula (NFF), an increase of 2.2% per pupil in their pupil-led funding. As a result, schools in the Newcastle upon Tyne Central Constituency will attract over £89.9 million, based on the schools NFF. Constituency figures are based on an aggregation of school-level allocations through the NFF.
Through the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), Newcastle upon Tyne local authority is receiving an extra £7.1 million for mainstream schools in 2024/25 compared to 2023/24, taking total school funding to over £228.7 million. This represents an increase of 2.1% per pupil compared to 2023/24 and an increase of 15.1% per pupil compared to 2021/22 (excluding growth funding).
Through the DSG, the North East is receiving an extra £45.7 million for mainstream schools in 2024/25 compared to 2023/24, taking total school funding to over £2.0 billion. This represents an increase of 2.1% per pupil compared to 2023/24 and an increase of 14.8% per pupil compared to 2021/22 (excluding growth funding).
All schools will receive additional funding through the Teachers’ Pay Additional Grant and Teachers' Pension Employer Contribution Grant 2024 in the 2024/25 financial year.
The precise funding that individual schools in Newcastle upon Tyne Central constituency, Newcastle upon Tyne and the North East will receive year-on-year will depend on each school’s unique circumstances, and the decisions that local authorities have made about how to deploy funding. The national funding formula is designed to fund each school according to its relative needs and is updated annually to reflect how those needs change over time.
Asked by: George Galloway (Workers Party of Britain - Rochdale)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the reduction in the level of real-terms funding since 2010 on schools in Rochdale constituency; and if she will make it her policy to increase the level of real-term funding for schools in Rochdale constituency to 2010 levels.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
This government is committed to providing a world class education system for all children and has invested significantly in education to achieve that. Overall school funding, including the recently announced additional pensions funding, is rising to £60.7 billion in 2024/25, which is the highest ever level in real terms per pupil. This means that real terms funding for schools in England has increased rather than decreased since 2010.
Through the National Funding Formula (NFF), funding is distributed fairly based on the needs of each school and their pupils and all schools attract a per pupil increase in funding. Mainstream schools in the Rochdale Constituency are attracting an extra £1 million in 2024/25 compared to 2023/24 through the schools NFF, which is an increase of 1.9% per pupil in their pupil-led funding. This means schools in the Rochdale Constituency will attract over £112.1 million, based on the schools NFF. Constituency figures are based on an aggregation of school-level allocations through the NFF, and final allocations will depend on the local authority’s funding formula.