Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department has taken to support the SEND-specialist Further Education sector; and what central capital grants have been provided to that sector during the last ten years.

The department has now published allocations for £740 million of high needs capital funding for the 2025/26 financial year. Of this funding, Birmingham has been allocated a total of just under £15 million which can be used to deliver new places in mainstream and special schools, as well as other specialist settings including early years, post-16 settings and alternative provision. It can also be used to improve the suitability and accessibility of existing buildings.

This is in addition to over £3 billion of high needs capital funding allocated to local authorities since 2018.

The department has also announced allocations of high needs revenue funding, which will be allocated as part of the dedicated schools grant to local authorities, and which they can use to support specialist further education provision for young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), particularly those with education, health and care plans, as well as children with SEND in the schools sector. High needs funding will total over £12 billion in the 2025/26 financial year.