How much school funding has been announced today, and what is it for?

The Department for Education announced today that local authorities will receive £50 million to create 740 more special school places, and provide new specialist facilities for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). These facilities could include sensory rooms and playgrounds with specialist equipment.

Another £680m has been announced, aimed at creating more school places in primary and secondary schools.

And early details of a £50m grant for local authorities to set up free schools have been published.

Is this new money?

The funding for special school places isn’t new; it’s part of the £23 billion capital funding announced in 2015 aimed at providing 600,000 school places by 2021.

However, the DfE has only today said it wants to ring-fence £50 million of this money for SEND pupils. The money builds on a similar announcement last year, when £215m was set aside for SEND pupils.

The separate £680m is aimed at creating 40,000 more school places in 2020-21 and funding experts  expect that local authorities will have already known about the money. It comes on top of the £980m that the DfE last year allocated to local authorities for 60,000 school places to be created in 2019-2020.  

The £50m for free schools is a new, one-off grant and will be available to around 15 local authorities that wish to open free schools. It amounts to around £3m for a 900-place secondary school. More details will be published later in the year.

What do school leaders make of the announcements?

The National Association of Head Teachers hopes the funding for specialist SEND facilities will help more pupils to stay in mainstream schools.

Valentine Mulholland, the NAHT’s head of policy, said: “School leaders are warning that the education of pupils with special education needs is at risk due to cuts to both school revenue funding and to the services supporting pupils’ needs in local authorities.

“The increasing struggle to support pupils with special education needs in a mainstream setting is leading to more and more pupils being educated in special schools.

“We welcome the provision of additional capital funding to create more specialist places in mainstream schools, as the educational and social benefits to inclusive education are well evidenced.”

But Ms Mulholland warned that the money “must be matched with sufficient funding for schools and more investment in the health and social care services available to schools and families”.

She said: “Simply creating additional SEND places won’t help much if schools don’t have the funding and resources required to provide the right education and care.”

Are local authorities happy with the funding?

The Local Government Association has welcomed the SEND money, but is calling for an urgent review of funding to meet the “to meet the unprecedented rise in demand for support from children with special needs”. 

Regarding free schools, it says that councils are best-placed to support the government in creating new schools and ensuring new buildings are fit for purpose. But it wants the funding system for school buildings to be simplified.

Richard Watts, chair of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board said: “The current school capital funding system is highly fragmented, and should be replaced with a single local funding pot, which brings together existing programmes to create additional places, and rebuild, maintain and repair schools.”

What was Labour’s response?

Labour’s shadow secretary of state for education, Angela Rayner, said: “Our schools’ finances are approaching breaking point yet the government can only re-announce old policies and old funding

“To offer £50 million for children with special education needs, after cutting billions from school budgets since 2015, is utterly derisory and will not reverse the damage that years of cuts have inflicted on the life chances of our children.

“The next Labour government will give our schools the investment they need, creating a National Education Service to give every child the best start in life.”

What is the government’s take on it?

Children and Families Minister Nadhim Zahawi said: “All parents want to send their child to a good local school, one that meets their individual needs and supports them to achieve their full potential, regardless of the challenges they may face.

“This funding will help to create thousands more school places across the country, with a clear focus on transforming the experience of education for children with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND).”