Asked by: Natasha Irons (Labour - Croydon East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much Croydon council will receive for family hubs in this financial year.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In 2024/25, Croydon Council were allocated £1.619 million for the delivery of Family Hubs and Start for Life programme.
In 2025/26, the department and the Department of Health and Social Care will provide a £126 million boost to give every child the best start in life and deliver on the Plan for Change. Funding will support local authorities to deliver Family Hubs and Start for Life services in areas with high deprivation, including Croydon, which has provisionally been allocated £1.709 million for the 2025/26 financial year. Final figures will be confirmed in due course.
Asked by: Natasha Irons (Labour - Croydon East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure the financial viability of (a) single and (b) two-form entry schools in (i) urban areas and (ii) Croydon East constituency.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department has allocated £242 million in growth and falling rolls funding to local authorities through the 2024/25 dedicated schools grant (DSG). Local authorities’ allocations of growth and falling rolls funding for 2025/26 was confirmed in December 2024 and information for Croydon is published here: https://skillsfunding.service.gov.uk/view-latest-funding/local-authority/statement/306.
Local authorities can use their growth and falling rolls funding allocations to repurpose surplus space to create SEND units, resource bases, or wraparound childcare provision in mainstream schools, activity which the department knows some local authorities already undertake. This is intended to support schools with falling rolls where planning data shows that the surplus places will be needed. Local authorities now have additional flexibility to support schools through such falling rolls funds.
The forthcoming Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill will introduce new duties for mainstream state schools and local authorities to co-operate regarding their respective school admissions functions and for mainstream, special and alternative provision state schools to co-operate with local authorities regarding their place planning functions. The onus will be on schools and local authorities to work together constructively on these issues so that their statutory responsibilities can be fulfilled.
Asked by: Natasha Irons (Labour - Croydon East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what additional SEND funding will be allocated to Croydon.
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 (AP) receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.
The department is providing an increase of almost £1 billion for high needs budgets in the 2025/26 financial year, bringing total high needs funding for children and young people with complex SEND to £11.9 billion. Of that total, Croydon Council is being allocated a provisional high needs funding amount of over £97 million through the national funding formula (NFF), which is a 7% increase per head of their 2 to 18-year-old population, on their equivalent 2024/25 financial year NFF allocation. The allocations have been published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-funding-formula-tables-for-schools-and-high-needs-2025-to-2026.
Croydon Council will also be allocated extra funding for pay and pensions costs in special schools and AP. This funding is additional to the allocations through the high needs NFF, and the department will confirm shortly how the funding allocations will be calculated.