To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to (a) improve the support offered to families whose children have additional learning needs, disability or special educational needs within education and (b) ensure that eligible children receive consistent and joined-up SEND support.
Answered on
25 October 2021
The department is providing over £42 million in the 2021-22 financial year to continue funding projects to support children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). This investment enables specialist organisations around the country to continue to provide practical support to schools and colleges, support families, ensure that they have a voice in the development of SEND services and help strengthen local area performance.
This includes £27.3 million to the Family Fund to support over 60,000 low-income families with children and young people with disabilities or serious illnesses; £2 million funding to the Whole School SEND consortium through our contract with the National Association for Special Educational Needs, to equip the school workforce to deliver high quality teaching to children and young with SEND; and £600,000 funding to the Autism Education Trust to provide a hub of guidance and resources to support families, teachers and other professionals.
In addition, since June 2020, we have announced more than £3 billion to support education recovery, which includes support for children with SEND, schools,16-19 providers and early years settings to help pupils make up education lost as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. Our recovery programmes have the flexibility to support those pupils most in need, including children and young people with SEND, with additional funding provided for those interventions that the evidence tells us will have a significant impact.