PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Special Educational Needs (20 January 2020)

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policy on SEND funding of the recommendations of paragraph 15 of the Local Government Association's report entitled, Have we reached a ‘tipping point’? Trends in spending for children and young people with SEND in England.

Asked by:
Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour)

No child or young person should be held back from reaching their potential, including those with complex special needs. This is why we have announced £780 million of additional high needs funding next year (2020-21), an increase of 12% compared to this year, bringing the total amount for supporting those with the most complex needs to £7.2 billion. This will be the largest year-on-year increase since the high needs funding block was created in 2013. Allocations for future years will be announced in due course.

Every local authority will see an increase in high needs funding, of at least 8% per head of population aged 2 to 18, with some seeing gains of up to 17% per head. This will provide valuable extra resources so that support is in place to make sure that no pupil or student is left behind.

However, the response to cost pressures cannot simply be about the amount of funding available. We have launched a review of the special educational needs and disabilities system to see what further improvements are necessary to make sure every child gets the education that is right for them.

Answered by:
Michelle Donelan (Conservative)
23 January 2020