Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to improve the (a) availability and (b) accessibility of SEND sports camps in Surrey Heath constituency.

The Government is dedicated to making sport in this country accessible and inclusive for everyone. The holiday activities and food programme provides healthy meals, enriching activities, and free childcare places to children from low-income families, benefiting their health, wellbeing and learning. The holiday activities and food programme funding is primarily for school aged children from reception to year 11 (inclusive) who receive benefits-related free school meals. Local authorities have discretion to use up to 15% of their funding to provide free or subsidised holiday club places for children, who are not in receipt of benefits-related free school meals, but who the local authority believe could benefit from holiday activities and food programme provision.

The Department for Education encourages local authorities to engage with local and national organisations, including special schools with expertise in working with children with SEND or additional needs. Local authorities are obligated to include the numbers of children with SEND or additional needs who have participated in their programme in their post provision reporting to the department.