Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding has been allocated from the NHS Covid Recovery Fund for (a) additional capacity for children with disability and care needs, (b) children and adolescent mental health services and (c) SEND provision.

On 6 September 2021, the Government announced an additional £5.4 billion for the National Health Service to support the COVID-19 response over the next six months, bringing the total to over £34 billion in 2021/22. This includes £2 billion to tackle the elective backlog to reduce waiting times for patients, including disabled children.

On 5 March 2021, we announced that £79 million of the additional £500 million for mental health and NHS workforce will be used to significantly expand mental health services for children.

This year, councils have access to £51.3 billion to deliver their core services, including a £1.7 billion grant for social care. To support local areas, the Government has given over £6 billion in un-ringfenced funding directly to councils to support them with the immediate and longer-term impacts of COVID-19 spending pressures, including for children’s social care. On 27 October, the Government announced £1.8 billion to recover children and young people’s lost learning as a result of the pandemic. This brings total investment specifically to support education recovery to £4.9 billion since the 2020/21 academic year.