MP raises concerns over 'funding shortfall' for special free schools
Joe Lepper
Wednesday, March 20, 2024
Jeremy Hunt is being warned by the chair of the Education Committee that the government's £105m offer to deliver 15 new special free schools falls short of the sum needed to support children.
The funding offer was announced in the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Spring Budget but could be more than £34,000 short for each place at the schools for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), warns Walker.
Conservative MP for Worcester Robin Walker says the funding offer “seems to me a very challenging one” as it gives a cost of £52,000 per place, which is down on government calculations made three years ago of £86,666 per place at special schools.
The 15 free schools aim to deliver up to 2,000 specialist SEND places nationwide. Locations are set to be announced in May this year.
Walker adds this initial costing was made “before the impact of three years of high inflation for building costs”, suggesting the cost could be even higher.
The £86,666 cost of each place was made in a £2.6bn commitment in 2021 to deliver 30,000 new school places through a mixture of new specialist schools, expanding exisiting ones and creating bases in mainstream schools.
Walker is calling on the government to explain “how deliverable” this programme has been for that per place cost “and the “rationale” for the Spring Budget announcement “being so much cheaper”.
Speaking during a House of Commons debate on SEND support, Walker also warned that the Department for Education’s SEND funding “has not been sufficient to meet demand”.
He said that despite a doubling of high needs funding over the last 10 years, an increase of children on education, health and care (EHC) plans “over the same period has been more than double”.
Our Chair, Robin Walker MP @WalkerWorcester , spoke in the Estimates Day debate, highlighting how schools are struggling with SEND provision 👇
— Education Committee (@CommonsEd) March 15, 2024
Catch up on our latest work on the SEND review: https://t.co/KcVWpQoRTo pic.twitter.com/qownIoEP99
Children’s services and council leaders warned last month that Hunt’s Spring Budget commitments fail to tackle a funding crisis facing local authorities.
“It is disappointing that the government has not announced measures to adequately fund the local services people rely on every day,” said Local Government Association chair Shaun Davies.
