Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to allocate more funding for SEND provision in rural areas.

This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.

The department is providing an increase of almost £1 billion for local authorities’ high needs budgets in the 2025/26 financial year, bringing total high needs funding for children and young people with complex SEND to £11.9 billion.

The department is now in the process of calculating indicative high needs funding allocations for local authorities next year through the national funding formula, which it expects to publish shortly.

This government is taking time to consider the funding formula that the department uses to allocate funding for children and young people with SEND. It is important that there is a fair education funding system, that directs funding to where it is needed, including funding for provision in rural areas.