Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much of the funding announced in the Spending Review 2025 for reform of the SEND system will be invested in improving early identification of SEND.

At the 2025 Spending Review, the department announced that funding for schools will increase by £4.7 billion per year by 2028/29 compared to the 2025/26 core schools budget, which was published in the Spring Statement 2025.

This additional funding will enable us to transform the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system to make mainstream education more inclusive and improve outcomes for children with SEND.

Details of the government's intended approach to SEND reform, including how we will ensure children get the support they need earlier, will be set out in a Schools White Paper in the autumn.

We do not expect local authorities to use their future high needs funding allocations to pay down their historic deficits.