Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Georgia Gould and Mary Kelly Foy

Monday 2nd March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mary Kelly Foy (City of Durham) (Lab)]

T2. I truly welcome the reform to SEND provision, but, with some schools already making redundancies because of funding, I echo the concerns of teaching unions that the recently announced inclusion grant is too small; it equates to one part-time teaching assistant for the average primary school and two TAs for the average secondary school. Can the Minister reassure me and educators in Durham that adequate funding will be available to make our schools more inclusive for children with SEND while allowing schools to protect the support that children with SEND in mainstream classrooms already have?

[The Minister for School Standards (Georgia Gould)]

We are committed to investing in schools. Our plans include an extra £1.6 billion going directly into schools and £1.8 billion going into the wider “experts at hand” service, on top of increasing funding to the schools core budget. In this Parliament, we will continue to grow our investment in both SEND and schools to ensure that every child gets the best start in life.