Clive Jones
Main Page: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)Department Debates - View all Clive Jones's debates with the Department for Education
Oral Answers to Questions
Clive Jones Excerpts(1 day, 6 hours ago)
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Georgia Gould
In this financial year we have already put £1 billion into the high needs budget and £740 million into specialist places around the country. We are committed to helping schools to provide an inclusive service, and we will be setting out more plans in the schools White Paper.
Clive Jones (Wokingham) (LD)
The Minister for School Standards (Georgia Gould)
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.
Clive Jones
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?
Georgia Gould
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.