Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities places available in schools in (a) Yorkshire and Humber and (b) England.

The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places, including for those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) sits with local authorities. We provide funding for all the places that are needed, based on local authorities’ own data. We have announced nearly £500 million to provide places needed for 2023. This funding is on top of over £8.1 billion to provide places needed from 2015 to 2022 and our investment in the Free Schools programme. School capacity published data estimates that, as at May 2019, local authorities in Yorkshire and Humber still needed to provide a further 8,644 places by September 2021. Funding is allocated at local authority level. The local authorities within Yorkshire and Humber have been allocated £1 billion to provide new school places between 2011 and 2023.

In addition to this funding, we are investing £300 million in 2021-22 for new places for children with SEND or who require alternative provision. This funding is on top of £365 million allocated to local authorities through the Special Provision Capital Fund across 2018-19 to 2020-21, with local authorities across Yorkshire and the Humber receiving nearly £22 million through this fund. Funding for future years will be determined as part of the next Spending Review.

The majority of children with special educational needs[1] (SEN) are educated in mainstream settings[2]. Of those identified in state-funded education[3] as either requiring SEN Support (983,559) or who have an education, health and care plan (269,022), 1,125,476 are currently educated in mainstream settings in England. This trend is replicated in the Yorkshire and Humber region, where 116,079 of 126,703 children requiring SEN support or have an education, health and care plan are in mainstream settings.

Under the SEND Code of Practice 2015, all mainstream schools are under a duty to use their best endeavours to support children with SEN (whether or not the child has an education, health and care plan). The Children and Families Act 2014 requires local authorities to keep the provision for children and young people with SEND under review (including its sufficiency), working with parents, young people, and providers.

[1] We collect data on pupils with a special educational need (SEN). This does not cover all disabilities and pupils may have a disability without a special educational need.

[2] Mainstream refers to state-funded primary and secondary schools only.

[3] State-funded refers to state-funded primary, secondary and special schools only.