PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE
SEND: Funding - 1 December 2025 (Commons/Commons Chamber)

We are committed to investing in improving the SEND system, and, as I said a moment ago, we have invested an extra £1 billion in the high needs block and £740 million in specialist places. The core schools budget for 2026-27 will total £67 billion, an increase from £65.3 million in 2025-26. That additional funding will provide an above-real-terms per-pupil increase in overall schools funding, which will take per-pupil funding to its highest ever level and help us to transform the SEND system.

In Wokingham there are not enough SEND places for pupils, which means that they have to travel outside the borough and sometimes a long way from their homes to go to school. In 2022, Wokingham bid for two SEND schools and were given those two schools, but nothing has happened since then; the Government have still not committed any funding to the schools. Will the Minister tell me now when the funding will be released so that the council can start building them?

We are absolutely committed to the education of children in their local communities, and I have seen the difference that the £740 million we have put into specialist places has made: children can now be educated in resource bases linked to schools. In relation to the two schools that the hon. Gentleman mentioned, as the Under-Secretary of State for Education, my hon. Friend the Member for Whitehaven and Workington (Josh MacAlister), said earlier, we hope to provide those answers as soon as possible.

I call the Chair of the Education Committee.

This morning I visited the Nido Volans Centre, a specialist college in my constituency, and enjoyed a delicious cup of tea made by two students, Marco and Jason. Nido Volans means “Fly the Nest”, and the college provides education and training on independent living and employability skills for young people with special educational needs and disabilities up to the age of 25. Will the Secretary of State join me in celebrating Natspec’s The Power of Specialist FE Awareness Week, and will she assure me that the Government’s SEND reform proposals will fully recognise the vital role of specialist colleges and the need for sustainable funding, so that every young person who can benefit from a specialist college placement has access to one?

I should very much like to celebrate this week, and I agree about the importance of access to specialist colleges and helping children into work. I have visited specialist providers and seen how proud headteachers are to be helping children into supported internships and helping them with their next steps. They are doing incredibly important work. Our schools White Paper examines how we can help children with special educational needs to thrive into adulthood.

On 16 June I asked the Secretary of State what she understood to be the drivers behind the phenomenon of the exponential rise in the number of children with special educational needs. She replied:

“My Department, and the Department of Health and Social Care, are keen to understand…the drivers”.—[Official Report, 16 June 2025; Vol. 769, c. 11.]

May I ask what work the Secretary of State has done in the intervening six months, and what she understands better today than she did on 16 June?

Again, we are absolutely committed to supporting children with special educational needs, and to understanding why we are seeing increases. Much of the evidence suggests that we are much better at diagnosing and understanding their needs, which is a positive development, but we are continuing to work with colleagues in the Department of Health and Social Care to review the evidence and understand how we can best intervene and support children—and, critically, not have to wait for a diagnosis, but be able to support children at the point when needs emerge.

I really welcome the Government’s increasing funding for SEND. However, almost 8,000 children in Liverpool now require an EHCP. The number has doubled over the past three years, with many parents struggling to find a school place that meets the needs of their child. Can the Minister please provide assurances to the Liverpool Parents and Carers Forum that the plan in the Budget to move the financial responsibility for SEND from local authorities to the Department for Education will be given the funding it needs to provide support to children who need it, including for earlier intervention, adequate specialist places and inclusive mainstream support?

I can assure my hon. Friend that we are already investing in special educational needs, and we will continue to invest in special educational needs.