Dr Neil Hudson MP stood up in Education Questions to champion the Conservative Government's positive record in office, improving the lives of children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).
Dr Hudson was keen to highlight that the Spending Review 2021 announced £2.6 billion over the spending review period to 2025 to create more than 30,000 new high-quality school places for children with SEND nationally, more than tripling capital funding levels to over £900 million by 2024-25. More details below.
The Education Secretary replied that Dr Hudson was "absolutely right" and confirmed that "only the Conservatives have a plan to support children with SEND".
Dr Neil Hudson MP said:
"Children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities must be given the scope to succeed in education and the potential to be able to go onto college, apprenticeships or university and to live happy and fulfilled adult lives in the future.
"We Conservatives are making sure this is the case with record high levels of funding and dedicated SEND places."
Recent measures for SEND funding from the Conservative Government:
The Department for Education has continued to increase the high needs funding for children and young people with the most complex needs, with over £8 billion having been provided for the 2021-22 financial year. In the financial year 2022-23, this increased by £1 billion to over £9.1 billion.
The Spending Review 2021 announced £2.6 billion over the spending review period to 2025 to create more than 30,000 new high-quality school places for children with SEND nationally, more than tripling current capital funding levels to over £900 million by 2024-25. This represents a significant, transformational investment in new high needs provision. It will support local authorities to deliver new places in mainstream and special schools, as well as other specialist settings, and will also be used to improve the suitability and accessibility of existing buildings.
The £2.6 billion capital investment in high needs provision announced in October 2021 will also help to deliver up to 60 new special and alternative provision free schools. This is in addition to the 48 special free schools already in the pipeline and 90 special free schools already opened. In March 2022 the Government announced High Needs Provision Capital Allocations amounting to over £1.4 billion of new investment, focused on academic years 2023/24 and 2024/25. It is up to local authorities to determine how to best prioritise their funding to address their local priorities.
In December 2023, the Government announced that an extra £440 million of investment to support pupils with SEND will be allocated to local authorities and used to fund special schools and provide mainstream schools with additional resources to meet the needs of pupils with complex SEND.
This package forms part of the Government’s significant investment into children and young people with SEND and in AP, with investment increasing by more than 60 per cent, compared with 2019-20, to over £10.5 billion by 2024-25.
In the Chamber:
Dr Neil Hudson MP said:
"With a 60% rise in complex needs funding over five years, reaching £10.5 billion in 2024/25, £105 million of funding for special free schools in the Spring Budget, and the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan to support everyone with special educational needs and disabilities to age 25, would my right hon. Friend agree with me that it is this Conservative Government that is working hard for the life chances for every child in our country?"
Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan, replied:
"Absolutely right. And he's right, you know, we should take no lessons from the Opposition on supporting children with SEND. Let's not forget that the number of children benefiting from being in special schools fell, probably because there was no specific high needs funding for local authorities at all to support people with special educational needs. And in contrast, we're investing record funding and we're obviously building more places than we ever have in our country's history. Only the Conservatives have a plan to support children with SEND."
