Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance her Department issues to local authorities on determining the level of funding allocated for each EHC plan.

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

If a pupil’s education, health and care plan requires a school to make provision that goes beyond the support that the school is expected to make available ordinarily from its core funding, the local authority provides the school with top-up funding from its high needs budget for the excess costs. The department provides operational guidance to local authorities on the arrangements for administering such high needs funding. The guidance for the 2025/26 financial year can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/high-needs-funding-arrangements-2025-to-2026.