Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he plans to take to ensure that the increase in funding for special needs provision meets the needs of the visually impaired.

The Children and Families Act (2014) requires local authorities to work with parents, young people, and providers to keep the provision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities under review, including its sufficiency.

We do not prescribe in detail how local authorities should allocate their high needs funding. In consultation with schools and other services, local authorities should consider carefully how best to meet the needs of children and young people in their area, including those with vision impairment.

To support local authorities, in December 2018 we announced an additional £250 million high needs funding up to 2020, on top of the funding increases we had already committed. This brings the total allocated for high needs in 2019-2020 to £6.3 billion and will help local authorities to manage the significant pressures on their high needs budgets.