Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support local authorities to reduce SEND assessment backlogs.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department publishes annual SEN2 data on education, health and care (EHC) plan assessments, including timeliness of assessment. These data underpin our monitoring of local authority performance, support targeted intervention, and strengthen transparency across the system. SEN2 returns inform regular engagement and monitoring meetings with local areas and help us identify where additional support or challenge may be required.
Through our special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) improvement and intervention programmes, we focus on areas showing signs of decline to help strengthen services. When inspections, other local intelligence or monitoring highlight concerns, including failures to meet statutory duties on EHC plan timeliness, we provide a range of universal, targeted and intensive support. This includes peer‑to‑peer support from sector-led improvement partners.
Local authorities struggling to meet the 20‑week timeframe receive enhanced monitoring, and specialist SEND Advisers are deployed where further diagnostic support is needed.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of levels in the availability of specialist school places in constituencies such as Aldridge-Brownhills.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
It is the responsibility of local authorities to ensure there are sufficient school places for pupils in their area, including those with special educational needs and disabilities. If a local authority identifies a shortage of places, resulting in a significant number of pupils needing to travel a long way to access a placement, they should consider creating, adapting, or expanding provision to meet that need.
The department has announced at least £3 billion for high needs capital between 2026/27 and 2029/30. Local authorities can use this funding to create specialist facilities within mainstream schools, adapt mainstream schools to be more accessible, and create special school places for pupils with the most complex needs.
This builds on the £740 million invested in 2025/26, which is on track to create around 10,000 new specialist places. Of this, Walsall Council received an allocation of just over £5 million. We will confirm local authority allocations for 2026/27 later in the spring.
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of home to school transport for pupils with SEND in Gloucester constituency.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department’s home-to-school travel policy aims to make sure no child is prevented from accessing education by a lack of transport. Local authorities must arrange free home-to-school travel for eligible children. This includes children of compulsory school age who attend their nearest school and would not be able to walk there because of their special educational needs, disability or mobility problem.
We know that challenges in the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system are creating pressures on home-to-school travel. We have committed to reform the SEND system to enable more children to thrive in local mainstream settings. These reforms will be set out in the upcoming Schools White Paper.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what measures will be introduced to monitor whether Special Educational Needs and Disabilities reform improves educational outcomes for children and young people.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Every child deserves an education that meets their needs, one that is academically stretching, where every child feels like they belong, and that sets them up for life and work.
We will set out the full Schools White Paper soon, building on the work we have already done to create a system that is rooted in inclusion, where children receive high quality support early on and can thrive at their local school.
The department regularly publishes statistics on pupils with special educational needs, including information on educational attainment, destinations, absence and exclusions.
Asked by: Alex Brewer (Liberal Democrat - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of school policies that restrict mobile‑phone use on pupil's health and safety.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department’s new, stronger guidance on mobile phones in schools is clear that all schools should be mobile phone-free by default. Pupils should not have access to their devices during lessons, break times, lunch times, or between lessons.
The guidance is clear that exceptions to a mobile phones policy may be required for children with specific special educational needs, disabilities or medical conditions. This includes users of health tech or assistive technology.
Where school leaders need to make additional exceptions or flexibilities to their policies based on a child’s individual needs, we trust them to do so.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of establishing a new national agency for SEND to help address variation in provision.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
As part of our Plan for Change, the department is determined to fix the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system and restore the trust of parents. We will do this by ensuring schools have the tools to better identify and support children before issues escalate.
We will publish further details about plans for SEND reform in a Schools White Paper shortly. Our reforms will be underpinned by five principles: ‘early’, ‘local’, ‘fair’, ‘effective’ and ‘shared’.
To support the reforms, we are strengthening the evidence base of what works to improve inclusive practice and help address variation in provision.
For example, recently published evidence reviews from University College London highlight what the best available evidence suggests are the most effective strategies to identify and support children with different types of needs.
The department also funds a What Works in SEND programme. Their research and effective practice models are included at: https://whatworks-send.org.uk/.
New research delivered by UK Research Innovation will also aim to develop effective approaches to early identification of children needing tailored educational support.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to publish proposals for the reform of provisions for delivery for special educational needs pupils in England.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As part of our Plan for Change, we are determined to fix the special educational needs and disabilities system and restore the trust of parents. My right hon. friend, the Secretary of State for Education, wrote to the Education Select Committee in October setting out the decision to have a further period of co-creation with families, teachers and experts from across the sector to design and test our proposals further and our full Schools White Paper building on this work will be published shortly.
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 non-capital resource spend on special educational needs pupils in England in (1) 2023–24, and (2) 2024–25, and what is the projected non-capital resource spend in 2025–26.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Mainstream schools are not required to record or report to the department how much they spend specifically on pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), so this information is not available. Local authorities are required, however, to identify a notional budget for each school, intended as a guide to how much they might need to spend on supporting their pupils with SEN, for annual costs up to £6,000 per pupil.
Local authorities allocate high needs funding for SEND support costs in excess of £6,000 and make provision and services available for other children and young people with complex needs. Their actual high needs expenditure is set out in the table below, including a small amount of high needs funding allocated directly by the department to schools and colleges, alongside the notional SEN budget total for mainstream schools. For the financial year 2025/26 we have included a forecast of high needs expenditure that the department provided to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) and that was included in their forecasts published at the autumn 2025 Budget.
Financial year | 2023/24 | 2024/25 | 2025/26 |
Total amount identified as notional SEN budget for mainstream schools | £4.8 billion | £5.4 billion | £5.8 billion |
Total high needs actual expenditure by local authorities and the separtment | £11.1 billion | £13.1 billion | |
High needs forecast expenditure for financial year 2025/26 | £14.8 billion | ||
Totals (rounded) | £15.9 billion | £18.5 billion | £20.7 billion |
Neither the OBR nor the department have finalised projections of spend over the next three financial years that take into account reforms to the SEND system from 2026/27.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the projected additional non-capital resource spend on special educational needs pupils in England in each of the next three financial years.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Mainstream schools are not required to record or report to the department how much they spend specifically on pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), so this information is not available. Local authorities are required, however, to identify a notional budget for each school, intended as a guide to how much they might need to spend on supporting their pupils with SEN, for annual costs up to £6,000 per pupil.
Local authorities allocate high needs funding for SEND support costs in excess of £6,000 and make provision and services available for other children and young people with complex needs. Their actual high needs expenditure is set out in the table below, including a small amount of high needs funding allocated directly by the department to schools and colleges, alongside the notional SEN budget total for mainstream schools. For the financial year 2025/26 we have included a forecast of high needs expenditure that the department provided to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) and that was included in their forecasts published at the autumn 2025 Budget.
Financial year | 2023/24 | 2024/25 | 2025/26 |
Total amount identified as notional SEN budget for mainstream schools | £4.8 billion | £5.4 billion | £5.8 billion |
Total high needs actual expenditure by local authorities and the separtment | £11.1 billion | £13.1 billion | |
High needs forecast expenditure for financial year 2025/26 | £14.8 billion | ||
Totals (rounded) | £15.9 billion | £18.5 billion | £20.7 billion |
Neither the OBR nor the department have finalised projections of spend over the next three financial years that take into account reforms to the SEND system from 2026/27.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to understand the factors contributing to the doubling in the number of children with education, health and care plans for social, emotional and mental health needs since 2016.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Every child deserves an education that meets their needs, is academically stretching, where they feel like they belong, and that sets them up for life and work
As part of the government’s Plan for Change, we are determined to fix the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system and restore the trust of parents. We will do this by ensuring schools have the tools to better identify and support children before issues escalate.
The department has improved data by disaggregating the SEN2 data collection from 2023. This change enabled more detailed, pupil level analysis of education health and care (EHC) plans and the processes associated with it, providing deeper insights into specific patterns and trends to support decision-making. The annual EHC plan statistics report provides information on the numbers of children and young people with an EHC plan
International evidence indicates that the number of children and young people with SEN is also increasing in comparable countries. Although definitions and systems vary considerably between countries, the key drivers include improved understanding and diagnosis of need, as well as social and medical factors.