Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make it his policy to require upper tier local authorities and clinical commissioning groups to provide parents of children with special educational needs or disabilities with a list of potential sources of financial support to which they might be entitled.

Local authorities must provide information on personal budgets as part of their local offer. This should include a policy on personal budgets that sets out a description of the services across education, health and social care that currently lend themselves to the use of personal budgets, how that funding will be made available, and clear and simple statements of eligibility criteria and the decision-making processes. Personal budgets are optional for the child’s parent or the young person, but local authorities are under a duty to prepare a budget when requested. Local authorities must provide information about organisations that may be able to provide advice and assistance to help parents and young people to make informed decisions about personal budgets.