Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure there is adequate funding for the provision of SEND services in rural schools.

Funding for specialist Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) services is allocated to local authorities through the high needs funding block of their Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG).

Local authorities are responsible for deciding how much of that funding to spend on appropriate local SEND services, to ensure there is effective support for the education of children and young people with SEND in all local schools, including rural schools.

Nationally, high needs funding is increasing to over £10.5 billion in the 2024/25 financial year, which is an increase of over 60% since the 2019/20 allocations. The department has already announced provisional 2024/25 high needs allocations for local authorities, and Lancashire County Council’s allocation is £203 million, which is over £10 million more than the Council will receive for 2023/24.