Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to ensure that funding is allocated to local authority areas to enable evidence-based catch-up interventions for children and young people’s speech, language and communication needs; and if he will make a statement.

In 2020-21, we are allocating £7.2 billion in high needs funding across England for children with complex special educational needs and disabilities, which includes those with speech, language and communication needs.

Specifically, in response to COVID-19, we are introducing an additional catch-up premium worth a total of £650 million to support schools to rise to make up for lost teaching time. Our expectation is that this funding will be spent on the additional activities required to support children to catch up after a period of disruption to their education. Headteachers will decide how the universal catch up premium is spent to best meet the needs of their pupils. The Education Endowment Foundation has published guidance on effective interventions to support schools:
https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/covid-19-resources/covid-19-support-guide-for-schools/.

We will set out how this funding will be distributed between individual schools shortly.

Local authorities’ core allocations to support children with high needs in 2021-22 will also be published shortly.