Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of pupils in Southampton, Itchen constituency are in receipt of high needs block education funding.

The requested information is not collected centrally.

High needs funding supports provision for pupils and students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) from their early years to 25. Local authorities should use their high needs budget to provide the most appropriate support package for an individual with SEN in a range of settings. It is also intended to support good quality alternative provision for pupils who cannot receive their education in schools for medical or other reasons.

Local authorities also use their high needs budget to pay for central services relating to SEND and alternative provision, as permitted by The School and Early Years Finance (England) Regulations 2017.

The number of pupils for whom schools receive high needs funding from their local authority has been published as part of the import/export adjustment in the illustrative high needs allocations from the second stage consultation on high needs funding reform.

The number of children with statements of SEN and education, health and care (EHC) plans in each local authority area has been published as national statistics.

Information from the schools census on pupils with SEN and SEN provision in schools has been published in Statistical First Release: Special Educational Needs in England. This includes underlying data at individual school level.