Education

Ranil Jayawardena Excerpts

Thursday 29th February 2024 Ministerial Corrections

[Gillian Keegan]

That is one reason the high-needs budget is up by over 60% in five years, and will reach £10.5 billion in 2024-25. We are also supporting local authorities with financial deficits through the safety valve and delivering better value programmes. In most constituencies, including in the hon. Lady’s area, the funding has gone up by 25% to 35% since 2021-22.

[Mr Ranil Jayawardena (North East Hampshire) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend update the House on the provision of training in SEND during initial teacher training to ensure that more teachers are aware of the support that children might need, and on the recruitment of specialists, such as educational psychologists and speech and language therapists?

[Gillian Keegan]

We are implementing a gold thread of high-quality teacher training reforms to ensure that teachers have the skills they need. The Department has been exploring opportunities to build expertise, through a review of the initial teacher training core content framework and the early career framework, to identify how we can equip new teachers to be more confident in meeting the needs of children and young people with SEND. There will be more investment in educational psychologists, of which there will be another 400, and more investment in early years SENCOs, of which there will be another 7,000.

[Official Report, 29 January 2024, Vol. 744, c. 590.]

Letter of correction from the Secretary of State for Education:

An error has been identified in my response to my right hon. Friend the Member for North East Hampshire (Mr Jayawardena). The correct response should have been: