Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to (a) remove and (b) consult on a timetable for the removal of the historic spend factor from the High Needs National Funding Formula.

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 structure of the high needs national funding formula (NFF) is largely unchanged for the 2025/26 financial year, as the government takes the time needed to consider what changes are necessary. It is important both to make sure that we establish an equitable education funding system that directs funding to where it is needed, including to reflect any substantive differences in the costs of SEND provision in rural areas, and to support the government’s SEND reforms.

As part of our review of the NFF we are considering the previous government’s decisions on the element based on local authorities’ spending levels in 2017/18, which amounts to about 25% of the 2025/26 NFF quantum. Our plans for this historic spend factor, as for the NFF as a whole, and for any consultations on changes to the NFF, will be announced in due course.