Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether additional funding for the Targeted Plus group will be ring fenced.

The department is taking steps to ensure that this additional funding will be spent for its intended purpose to support mainstream inclusion, this includes providing funding such as the Inclusive Mainstream Fund as a separate grant with reporting conditions and guidance to be published to achieve this.

Our special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reform consultation document proposes a continuum of support for children’s needs. Support will range from the Universal offer (including high-quality adaptive teaching) to the Targeted layer (such as small group provision) and Targeted Plus support (such as speech and language therapy).

We are providing additional funding to boost the capacity of mainstream settings to meet this continuum of need, before any legislative changes. The department will publish guidance and conditions of grant to ensure that settings and local authorities spend the funding on this purpose.

The Inclusive Mainstream fund provides over £500 million per year for schools, colleges and early years settings so they can improve their inclusive practice. We have published information on £1.8 billion for local authorities over the three years to provide a new Experts at Hand offer, strengthening the capability of mainstream settings to meet SEND needs by providing access to expert support from education and health professionals.