Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of standardising the funding models local authorities use to support pupils with special educational needs.

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

Following the Autumn Budget 2024, the department is providing an increase of £1 billion for high needs budgets in England in the 2025/26 financial year, bringing total high needs funding for children and young people with complex SEND to £11.9 billion.

Of that total, Bedford Borough Council is being allocated over £38 million through the high needs funding block, and Central Bedfordshire Council is being allocated over £49 million.

We are keeping the high needs funding arrangements, including the appropriate level of flexibility and standardisation in local authorities’ funding models, under review as we progress wider SEND reforms.