Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the announcement in the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021, how much and what proportion of the £4.8 billion in new local authority grants he plans to designate to tackling the backlog in Education, Health and Care Plan assessments.

High needs funding is part of the core schools budget. The 2021 Spending Review announced a further £4.7 billion in the core school budget by 24/25 compared to previous plans, including £1.6 billion in 22/23 on top of already planned increases from the 2019 Spending Review. This takes the total core schools budget to £56.8 billion in 24/25.

The additional LGDEL funding announced at the 2021 Spending Review will support councils to meet pressures across the range of their responsibilities. We will say more about the distribution of this funding at the provisional settlement.