Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve learning support for pupils with ADHD in (a) primary and (b) secondary state education.

The department is committed to improving support for all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other neurodiverse conditions.

The department is providing £1 billion more for high needs budgets in 2025/26, bringing total high needs funding to £11.9 billion. This funding will help local authorities and schools with the increasing costs of supporting children and young people with complex SEND.

The SEND code of practice is clear that schools should apply a “graduated approach” to identify a child’s needs, plan appropriate support, implement that support and review it regularly to ensure it continues to meet their identified needs. Through this, schools should develop personalised approaches to supporting the unique needs of individual pupils. Schools should involve pupils and their parents in this process, taking their views into consideration.

In November 2024, the department established a Neurodivergence Task and Finish Group, chaired by Professor Karen Guldberg from the University of Birmingham, to provide an expert view and make recommendations on how to best meet the needs of neurodivergent children and young people within mainstream education settings. Professor Anita Thapar, the chair of the independent ADHD Taskforce convened by NHS England, is a member of this group.

The department also runs a Universal SEND Services contract to provide SEND-specific professional development and support for the school and further education workforce. The programme helps professionals to identify and meet the needs of children and young people with SEND, including ADHD, earlier and more effectively. Since the programme commenced, school and college staff have completed over 20,000 online training modules.

Additionally, the department has introduced the Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools (PINS) programme, a cross-government collaboration between the department, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England, backed by £13 million of investment.

PINS brings together integrated care boards, local authorities and schools, working in partnership with parents and carers to support schools to better meet the needs of neurodivergent children and their families.

PINS deploys specialists from health and education workforces to build teacher and staff capacity to identify and better meet the needs of neurodivergent children in around 1,650 (10%) mainstream primary schools.