Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of changes to levels of funding on the adequacy of provision of special needs education.

We have listened to the concerns of local authorities and others about high needs cost pressures. That is why we will provide additional high needs funding allocations for all local authorities, totalling £250 million over 2018 to 2019 and 2019 to 2020. This brings the total allocated for high needs this year to £6.1 billion and £6.3 billion in 2019 to 2020. We recognise that the high needs budget faces significant pressures and this additional investment will help local councils to manage those pressures.

Of course, extra funding cannot be our only response and we have also set out plans to support local authorities in their role of providing strategic leadership and oversight of the provision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. We will continue engaging with local authorities, health providers, families, schools and colleges to build our understanding of what is driving the cost pressures on high needs budgets and to work with the sector to help manage them.