SEND Provision Funding 2025-07-21
2025-07-21
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Questions & Answers
Q1
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Context
The last Conservative government left behind a SEND system that was failing children and families. Parents had to fight for support, with education, health and care plans denied or delayed and vital services taken away. Tory cuts to early years support combined with rising poverty and extreme deprivation in Blackpool have deepened the crisis facing vulnerable young people.
What steps is the Education Secretary taking to ensure children in disadvantaged communities like mine, where the need for targeted SEND support is high but current provision often falls short, receive the necessary assistance they urgently require?
My hon. Friend is a powerful champion for his constituents and for Blackpool, and he is right that far too many children are not currently getting the support they need in order to thrive. Early intervention is key—more support at the earliest possible point to identify where children might be struggling, and to make sure that they get the help they need. That is why I was very proud to announce to the House that, building on the proud Labour legacy of Sure Start, we will be rolling out Best Start family hubs to make sure that we have better family support services in every part of our country, including my hon. Friend’s community.
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Q2
Partial Answer
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The last government left behind a system that was failing children and families, with parents having to fight for support and services being taken away. The current Education Secretary is looking at all proposals inherited from the previous administration.
Will the Secretary of State confirm that the excellent news about a new SEND school being built at Bitham Park in Westbury will go ahead to benefit children and families, and assure me it will not be cancelled due to recent changes?
I will happily write to the right hon. Gentleman in relation to his constituency case. We are looking carefully at all the proposals we inherited when we came in as a new Government, but the assurance I can give him is that through the spending review we secured additional investment not just for revenue funding but also for capital funding to make sure that we are creating the specialist places that are needed in both the mainstream and also the specialist sector, which has an enormous amount of expertise.
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Q3
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The Minister for School Standards has stated that the Government will not remove “effective support” but what does this term mean? Who will be responsible for determining its effectiveness?
Parents are contacting MPs across the country asking if existing special needs support will continue under planned reforms. The Minister for School Standards has said that the Government will not remove “effective support”, but what is meant by ‘effective’ in this context, who will judge it, and on what basis? Why does the government not simply guarantee that all children will keep their current level of support?
As I said in response to the hon. Member for North Herefordshire (Ellie Chowns), children with SEND have a legal right to additional support, and Labour will always protect that. We will not just protect it, but improve it. We will deliver better outcomes and support for children with SEND.
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