Special Educational Needs: Finance

(asked on 19th November 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the SEND budgets of local authorities.


Answered by
Nadhim Zahawi Portrait
Nadhim Zahawi
This question was answered on 22nd November 2018

Local authorities are required to provide schools with sufficient funds of up to £6,000 per pupil, to enable them to meet the additional costs of those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The local authority can also give additional funding from its high needs budget to schools that have a disproportionate number of pupils with SEND, whose additional support costs up to £6,000.

When the costs of additional support required for a pupil with special educational needs exceed £6,000, the local authority should also allocate additional top-up funding to cover the excess costs. This funding comes from the local authority’s high needs budget. This year, high needs budgets total just under £6 billion across England, a £142 million increase since last year. This is explained in the high needs funding operational guide, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/high-needs-funding-arrangements-2018-to-2019.

However, we recognise that there is pressure on schools to do more, which is why we have taken steps to help them get the best value for every pound. We also recognise that local authorities are experiencing cost pressures on high needs and are keeping the overall level of funding for high needs under review.

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