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Autumn Budget 2021 - a look at SEND funding

The Autumn budget presented to parliament on Wednesday 27th October saw the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, announce funding of £2.6bn to provide places for children with SEND.  The capital investment, which will help create 30,000 "high-quality" school places for children with special needs and disabilities (SEND) over the next three years, will also fund the construction of new free schools, as well as improvements to the accessibility of existing buildings, the Treasury said. The Chancellor also announced that funding per pupil in England’s schools is to be restored to 2010 levels over the next three years.

The government has said the extra investment will be used to fund education recovery through:

  • More than 30,000 new high-quality school places for pupils with SEND to support their learning in both mainstream and special educational needs schools
  • Improvements in the suitability and accessibility of existing buildings, recently recommended in the government's National Disability Strategy
  • New special and alternative provision free schools

While this is welcomed it does raise the question of when these will be created and how they will be staffed.

At the same time the Local Government Chronicle reports that councils are calling for the government to write off the growing deficits in the SEND provision which are estimated to total approximately £2bn. The combination of the 2014 Children and Families Act reforms and the increase in the number of EHC plans has seen councils increasingly spending more on provision. The SEND review and the High Needs Funding consultations are both due and we await to see if they address these fundamental issues.

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