Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy to provide additional funding to schools specialising in meeting the needs of children with special educational needs and disabilities.

The department is providing an unprecedented level of high needs funding for children and young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), most of which is allocated to local authorities for them to pass through to schools, including special schools.

As a result of the additional funding following the Autumn Statement 2022, high needs funding will increase by £970 million in the 2023/24 financial year compared to 2022/23. This is an increase of 10.6%, and will bring total high needs funding to £10.1 billion next year. This extra funding will help local authorities and schools with the increasing costs of educating children and young people with SEND, including those with autism. From the additional funding provided at the Autumn Statement, all special schools will receive a 3.4% increase to their budgets for 2023/24.