Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Education on supporting disabled children and families to recover from the covid-19 outbreak.

The department continues to work closely with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on supporting disabled children and their families. Since June 2020, we have announced £4.9 billion to support education recovery. This includes support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Our recovery programmes have the flexibility to support those pupils most in need, including children with SEND. We have also provided additional funding for those interventions that the evidence tells us will have a significant impact on high quality tutoring and great teaching.

We have consistently prioritised children who attend specialist settings by providing additional uplifts both in the 2020 Catch-up Premium and in the 2021 Recovery Premium, and providing the flexibility to deliver provision based on pupils’ needs. Specialist settings also received an uplift to deliver the summer schools programme.

We have ensured that settings have the flexibility to target this to meet the needs of their pupils and students. In addition, the department continues to work hard to ensure children and young people are given access to therapies and equipment so that the right support is in place for all children and families, including addressing the backlog in assessments.

We are providing over £42 million in financial year 2021-22 to continue funding projects to support children with SEND. This investment will ensure that specialist organisations around the country can continue to help strengthen local area performance, support families, and provide practical support to schools and colleges. This includes £27.3 million to the Family Fund in financial year 2021-22 to support over 60,000 families on low incomes raising children and young people with disabilities or serious illnesses.