Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to paragraph 4.8 of the Autumn Budget 2024, how she plans to allocate the additional (a) SEND and (b) Alternative Provision funding.

The high needs national funding formula (NFF) will be used to allocate high needs funding to local authorities for the 2025/26 financial year. The department is taking more time to consider what changes to the NFF are needed, both to make sure that we establish a fair education funding system that directs funding to where it is needed, and to support any special educational needs and disabilities reforms that will be taken forward.

The department is now in the process of calculating the high needs NFF allocations, which will provide local authorities with indicative amounts for 2025/26. We expect to publish those allocations by the end of November 2024.