Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what additional support is offered to mainstream schools in England working with pupils on the autistic spectrum.

All mainstream schools have a duty to use their ‘best endeavours’ to meet the needs of pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), and this includes those with autism. They are funded to do so through core schools funding. If pupils with more complex needs cannot be supported adequately from this budget, schools can ask their local authority for additional funding.

Core funding for schools and high needs has risen from almost £41 billion in 2017/18 to £42.4 billion in 2018/19. £6 billion of this funding is allocated for high needs. We have provided an additional £140 million in high needs funding in 2018/19 and will provide an additional £120 million in 2019/20. This supports local authorities and schools to meet the needs of all children and young people with more complex SEN, including those with autism.

In April of this year we awarded a new contract to Nasen and University College London (UCL), on behalf of the Whole School SEND consortium, to equip the school workforce to deliver high quality teaching across all types of SEND. Newly appointed regional SEND leaders will bring local networks and schools together to share good practice, improve access to resources and training and help all schools to improve provision.

The department has been funding the Autism Education Trust (AET) since 2011 to provide training for early years, school and further education staff. To date, the AET has provided training, through sub-contracted ‘hubs’, for more than 185,000 staff, equipping them to support children and young people with autism. This contract was extended from April 2018 to March 2020 with a further £1.45 million.