Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support schools to meet the change in the level of demand for SEND provision in Mid Bedfordshire constituency.

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

The department is providing an increase of £1 billion for high needs budgets in England in the 2025/26 financial year, following the Autumn Budget 2024. This brings total high needs funding for children and young people with complex SEND to over £12 billion. Of that total, Central Bedfordshire Council is being allocated over £49 million through the high needs funding block of the dedicated schools grant (DSG), an increase of £4 million on their 2024/25 DSG high needs block, calculated using the high needs national funding formula.

Local authorities allocate their high needs funding to support schools in making suitable provision for the increasing number of pupils identified as having more complex SEND.

The department has also announced High Needs Provision Capital Allocations for financial year 2025/26, totalling £740 million, of which Central Bedfordshire has been allocated £4.4 million. The department is encouraging local authorities to use this funding to adapt mainstream schools for pupils with SEND, creating new special units or resourced provision, as well as to create new places in special schools.

The department wants more children to receive the support they need to thrive in their local mainstream school and we want to restore parents’ trust that their child will get the support they need without having to travel a long way to access a specialist placement.