Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help increase the number of SEND school places available in mainstream education.

The department is investing £2.6 billion between 2022 and 2025 to support local authorities in delivering new school places and improving existing provision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), or who require alternative provision. This represents a significant, transformational investment in new high needs provision. It will support local authorities to deliver new places in both mainstream and special schools, as well as other specialist settings, and will also be used to improve the suitability and accessibility of existing buildings.

As part of this commitment, in March 2022 the department announced High Needs Provision Capital Allocations amounting to over £1.4 billion of new investment, focused on the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years. Local authorities can use this funding to work with any school or institution in their area, and the department encourages them to consider prioritising projects that increase available placements for children and young people with education, health and care plans in mainstream settings, including new SEN units or resourced provisions. However, it is ultimately up to local authorities to determine how to best use their funding to address their local priorities.