Special Educational Needs

(asked on 8th September 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to provide more special educational needs and disability (SEND) support to schools.


Answered by
Baroness Barran Portrait
Baroness Barran
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This question was answered on 22nd September 2021

Our ambition is for every child and young person to have access to a world-class education that sets them up for life, regardless of the challenges they face.

The government is making a major investment in education, and this includes increasing high needs funding for children and young people with more complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) by £780 million, or 9.6%, in the 2022-23 financial year. This will follow an increase of more than £1.5 billion over the previous two years and will bring the total high needs budget to £8.9 billion, an increase of over a third since 2019-20. We have also provided, so far, more than £3 billion to support children, including those with SEND, to catch up with their learning.

More generally, it is also providing over £42 million in the 2021-22 financial year to: continue funding projects to support children and young people with SEND and their families; strengthen local area performance; and ensure that they have a voice in the development of SEND services, and information and advice. This includes £27.3 million to support over 60,000 low-income families with children and young people with disabilities or serious illnesses; £2 million funding to continue to equip the workforce to delivery high quality teaching to children and young with SEND through the Whole School SEND consortium; and £600,000 funding to the Autism Education Trust to provide a hub of guidance and resources to support families, teachers and other professionals.

The government is carrying out a review of the SEND system, which includes looking at the support available in mainstream schools for children with SEND. The review is looking at how to ensure support across all education settings is consistent, high quality and joined up across health and care. Proposals for consultation will be published as soon as possible.

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