To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what financial support is available to schools from local authorities to support SEND children.

A mainstream school’s funding is calculated through a local funding formula decided by the local authority in consultation with its schools. Local authorities are required to provide schools with sufficient funds to enable schools to meet the additional cost of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities, up to £6,000. The local formula often uses factors such as low prior attainment and free school meals to do this. The local authority can also give additional funding from its high needs budget to schools that have a disproportionate number of pupils with SEN whose additional support costs up to £6,000.

When the costs of additional support required for a pupil with SEN exceed £6,000, the local authority should allocate additional top-up funding to cover the excess costs. This funding comes from the local authority’s high needs budget. The local authorities’ high needs funding allocation also covers the costs of provision in special schools, and alternative provision. Nationally, high needs funding has risen from a total of £5 billion in 2013 to just under £6 billion this year. Allocations to individual local authorities for this year can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2018-to-2019.