Thank you for contacting me about school funding.
I cannot commit to spending pledges as broad as those you ask for, but I welcome SEND reform focussing on earlier intervention and stronger mainstream inclusion, as long as we ensure that we are not pilling ever more pressure on to the state sector. Where mainstream schools are taking on more responsibilities, the right funding must follow.
Schools are already being stretched hugely following the lack of full compensation for national insurance contributions and unfunded pay rises. The £1.6 billion pot for inclusive mainstream provision over three years equates to roughly £24,000 per school, per year if divided evenly across England. That is nowhere near enough for the extra work that schools will have to do to write tailored individual support plans for every child with SEND. This a mammoth burden to place on schools - one that I don't think is necessarily misplaced - but £24,000 a year is not enough to help them manage it. This is not a recipe for inclusion but for disaster.
The wider funding picture is even more concerning. The Chancellor has left the Department for Education with a £6 billion deficit - money that the Office for Budget Responsibility identified would have come from SEN provision or schools. Against that backdrop, the Department is set to receive an extra £3.5 billion in 2028-29, reopening its Spending Review settlement, but that uplift is more than swallowed by the pressures it has inherited. The result is still roughly a £2.5 billion gap.
There is still no detail to the Government's SEND reforms and I am concerned that huge uncertainty persists and that cuts are coming to mainstream schools.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.
