Funding boost for children with complex needs announced

Councils will receive an additional £250 million over the next two years to provide support for children and young people with complex SEND.

An extra £100 million has also been allocated to create more specialist places in mainstream schools, colleges and special schools. This could include more state-of-the-art facilities, such as sensory rooms and specialist equipment.

This is on top of the £6 billion already provided for the high needs budget this year.

The Education Secretary Damian Hinds has also confirmed he will approve all high quality bids in the current round of special and alternative provision free schools applications, creating even more choice for parents.

Education Secretary Damian Hinds said: "For children with special educational needs this is no different. It is important that they have the right support in place at school – whether that is in a mainstream setting, with additional support, or in a special school.

"We recognise that the high needs budget faces significant pressures and this additional investment will help local councils to manage those pressures, whilst being able to invest to provide more support.

"Every school or college should be one for a young person with special educational needs; every teacher should be equipped to teach them, and families need to feel supported."

The Government has also confirmed an expansion of the funding to train more educational psychologists, who are responsible for assessing children’s needs and providing tailored support as part of the Education, Health and Care needs assessment process.

Educational psychologists also provide outreach to teachers and families, providing new support strategies when the complex needs of a child are not being met. From September 2020 there will be a further three training rounds and an increase in the number of trainees from 160 to at least 206, to help keep up with demand for this specialist advice.