Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the (a) effectiveness and (b) fairness of the funding allocation system for special educational needs and disabilities provision.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department is taking time to consider the various funding formulae that the department and local authorities use to allocate funding for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). It is important that there is a fair education funding system that directs funding to where it is needed.
Budgets for the 2025/26 financial year have not yet been set, meaning that decisions on the high needs and schools national funding formulae and the publication of allocations for that year are not to the usual timescales. The department will publish information as soon as possible, after the Budget later in October.
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that Education, Health and Care Plan applications are processed promptly.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department’s aim is to deliver better life chances for all, through a system which works for all.
The department knows that some parents have struggled to get the right support for their children, particularly through a long and difficult education, health and care (EHC) plan process. We will work across the sector to provide support for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), those needing alternative provision, and their families. The department is committed to taking a community-wide approach, improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools and alternative provision settings, as well as ensuring special schools cater to those with the most complex needs.
The department wants to ensure that EHC plan applications are processed promptly and, where required, plans are issued as quickly as possible so that children and young people can access the support they need. The department has listened to a wide range of relevant stakeholders, such as children and young people, parents, schools, colleges and local authorities and their partners, and it is reflecting on what practice could be made consistent nationally.
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to (a) replace and (b) extend funding announced by the previous Government for 15 new special free schools.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
This government is committed to making sure that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities receive the support they need to achieve and thrive, which includes a place in a special school where needed.
The window for trusts to apply to run these schools closed on 19 July 2024. The department will provide an update in due course.
The upcoming Spending Review and October Budget will set funding for the 2025/26 financial year. All other future spending decisions will be for the next phase of the Spending Review, which is expected to set budgets for future years in the spring.
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve (a) inclusivity and (b) expertise in mainstream schools for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life. The department is committed to improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools, as well as ensuring special schools cater to those with the most complex needs, in order to restore parents’ trust that their child will get the support they need.
To take this forward, the department will publish evidence reviews to identify the most effective tools, strategies and approaches for teachers and other relevant staff in mainstream settings to identify and support children and young people with different types of needs.
This government is committed to continuous improvement to transform the training and support for all new teachers, and to review the experiences and needs of early career teachers as well as trainees. The new Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework (ITTECF) is due to be implemented from September 2025 and will underpin all Initial Teacher Training courses and statutory induction training for early career teachers across the country.
The ITTECF contains additional content related to inclusion, adaptive teaching and supporting pupils with SEND. The inclusion content includes developing an understanding that teacher approaches to inclusion and SEND are a key determinant of pupil outcomes. The adaptive teaching content includes, for example, developing an understanding of different pupil needs, and learning how to provide opportunities for success for all pupils.
The department will also work with Ofsted to ensure that schools are held accountable for their approach to inclusion, so that all children are given the high quality support they need to learn and thrive. The department is committed to improving the inspection system, moving away from the single headline grade to a richer system to assess school quality through a report card, giving a more rounded picture of how a school is performing and providing parents with greater clarity on the support a school has in place for children with SEND.
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help tackle financial pressures on local authorities resulting from SEND expenditure.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department recognises that many local authorities are facing challenges in managing their high needs budgets, which has impacted their ability to balance their Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) funding.
This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life. We will work with the sector as essential and valued partners to deliver our shared mission and restore parents’ trust, including considering how we can help councils manage the impacts of DSG deficits on their finances.
The department has taken action to help those authorities with deficits and will continue to do so. It has published guidance on good practice and provided help and advice through direct contact with all those authorities that have deficits. High needs deficit intervention programmes are designed to improve SEND services by making the very best use of resources to deliver the support that children and young people need. Where additional support is required in a local area, particularly following an Area SEND Inspection, the department commissions specialist SEND Advisors and Commissioners to support local authorities to build on existing strengths and address areas of weakness in local provision.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has made regulations which ring-fence DSG deficits from councils’ wider financial positions in their statutory accounts. This is a temporary accounting measure, currently in operation to March 2026, and it is still crucial that local authorities’ high needs systems move to a more sustainable position in the near future.
Budgets for the 2025/26 financial year will be set in the forthcoming Spending Review.
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to make the teaching workforce more inclusive for individuals with special educational needs and disabilities.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The government is committed to making teaching a profession where all teachers, including those with disabilities, have equal opportunities to progress. This includes designing our world-class programmes such as the Early Career Framework and National Professional Qualifications to support teachers from diverse backgrounds. We expect schools, like all employers, to discharge their obligations under the Equality Act 2010 and give due consideration to the way their employment practices affect staff at different stages of their careers.
To this end, we are improving data collection on disability within the teaching profession to better understand their barriers to success. In 2023, the department published a report on barriers to collecting disability data and have since enhanced guidance for schools on the School Workforce Census and conducted additional research via the School and College Panel and the Working Lives of Teachers and Leaders Study.
Additionally, the forthcoming Race Equality Act will require public services, including schools, to report data on staffing, pay, and outcomes by disability status, further promoting inclusivity. The department will support schools and multi-academy trusts to meet these requirements when they come into force.
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to continue the reforms set out in the SEND and alternative provision improvement plan.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Too many families and schools are struggling to secure the provision and support they need to support children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and outcomes for children with SEND have suffered for far too long. This government’s ambition is to ensure that all children and young people with SEND or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.
The department is committed to taking a community-wide approach, improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools. We also want to ensure that special schools cater to those with the most complex needs. Whilst we recognise the urgency and need to drive improvements, we are conscious that there are no quick fixes and want to take a considered approach to deliver sustainable education reform.