Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many councils have reduced funding for educational support for visually impaired children in England in the last three years.

Spending by local authorities on children and young people with additional needs is recorded in the local authority’s section 251 return. That does not break down spending by type of need, so we are unable to confirm the level of spending on visual impairment.

Since 2015-16, our high needs funding has risen from £5.2 billion to £6.3 billion. Next year, high needs funding will rise by £780 million to over £7 billion, with every local authority seeing a minimum funding increase of 8% per head of population aged 2 to 18 years old.