Oral Answers to Questions

Chris Webb Excerpts

Monday 21st July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Morgan]

The Government are committed to ensuring excellence for everyone so that children have the support, skills and opportunities that they need, and that starts in early years. We are actively working with parents and experts on solutions, including more early intervention to prevent needs from escalating. Any changes we make will improve support for children and parents, stop parents having to fight for support, and protect current effective provision.

[Chris Webb (Blackpool South) (Lab)]

8. What steps her Department is taking to ensure adequate funding for SEND provision.

[The Secretary of State for Education (Bridget Phillipson)]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend that important question. Labour is providing £1 billion more for high-needs budgets, and also providing councils with £740 million of capital funding to improve support for children with SEND in specialist and mainstream schools. This investment will lay the foundation for the better system that children with SEND need. Working with experts, we will set out our plans in the schools White Paper in the autumn.

[Chris Webb]

The last Government left behind a SEND system that was failing children and families. Parents were made to fight for support, with education, health and care plans denied or delayed and vital services taken away. Tory cuts to early years support, rising poverty and extreme deprivation in Blackpool, as well as the pandemic hitting our children harder than most, have all combined to deepen the crisis facing our most vulnerable young people. What steps is the Education Secretary taking to ensure children in disadvantaged communities like mine, where the need is high and support often falls short, receive the targeted SEND support they urgently require?

[Bridget Phillipson]

My hon. Friend is a powerful champion for his constituents and for Blackpool, and he is right that far too many children are not currently getting the support they need in order to thrive. Early intervention is key—more support at the earliest possible point to identify where children might be struggling, and to make sure that they get the help they need. That is why I was very proud to announce to the House that, building on the proud Labour legacy of Sure Start, we will be rolling out Best Start family hubs to make sure that we have better family support services in every part of our country, including my hon. Friend’s community.