More than £120 million has been allocated by the Government to fund 2,000 new places for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in London for 2025/26. Newham Council is to receive the most by some way, at just over £8.1m, while West London’s Kensington and Chelsea Council has been earmarked the least, at £605,401.
A spokesperson for Kensington and Chelsea said the authority welcomes the availability of the funds, which enable it to create more specialist places. The funding, which is distributed based on the population size of the london-england/” title=”Christmas Decorations, London, England.”>local authority and their pupil to capacity ratio, is part of a wider national allocation of £740m. The Department for Education says this will pay for 10,000 new places for children with SEND.
According to the Government’s explanatory note: “The funding can be used to adapt classrooms to be more accessible for children with SEND, to create specialist facilities within mainstream schools that can deliver more intensive support adapted to suit the pupils’ needs, and to create special school places for pupils with the most complex needs.”
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Fewer than one in 10 mainstream schools have SEN units or resourced provision, while the number of children with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) has rocketed since 2010. The most recent figures indicate there is a shortfall of around 8,000 places in state special schools, a gap the Government is looking to plug.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “As part of our Plan for Change, we want every family to have access to a good local school for their child, breaking the link between children’s background and their opportunities in life. This investment is a big step towards delivering not only enough school places, but the right school places, supporting all children and particularly those with SEND, and plugging the significant gaps in provision we inherited.
“This investment will give children with SEND the support they need to thrive, marking the start of a turning point for families who have been fighting to improve their children’s outcomes.”
In London the shortfall of secondary school special places in May 2024 was 600, with 21,900 places reported against 22,500 pupils. Looking ahead, the number of children in London with an EHCP requiring specialist provision is expected to increase from 34,500 in 2024/25 to 41,900 by 2028/29.
In a breakdown of where the London funding is to be allocated, Newham Council is listed as due to receive the most, with £8,106,208. Kensington and Chelsea meanwhile is to receive less than a tenth of that sum, £605,401.
A spokesperson for the West London council said: “We welcome the availability of the funds, which allow us to create new specialist placements for SEND and improve the suitability and accessibility of existing buildings.”
The council added that since 2021/22, it has been allocated £13,780,411 in High Needs Capital Grant Funding, which has been used to create around 300 new specialist places.
A Newham Council spokesperson said: “We are delighted that there is a commitment to increasing much needed funding for specialist places for children with special educational needs in Newham. We are in close touch with the Department for Education to work out the detail of how and when the funding will be made available.”
See the full breakdown below.
Local Authority
Total High Needs Provision Capital Allocations
Barking and Dagenham
£4,230,915
Barnet
£3,950,769
Bexley
£3,703,855
Brent
£6,355,245
Bromley
£5,276,857
Camden
£1,323,140
City of London
N/A
Croydon
£5,548,421
Ealing
£5,812,461
Enfield
£6,181,905
Greenwich
£3,948,641
Hackney
£3,507,978
Hammersmith and Fulham
£1,153,670
Haringey
£2,481,631
Harrow
£4,223,677
Havering
£3,945,057
Hillingdon
£4,520,939
Hounslow
£5,016,773
Islington
£1,666,742
Kensington and Chelsea
£605,401
Kingston upon Thames
£2,146,504
Lambeth
£2,468,212
Lewisham
£5,710,313
Merton
£3,636,150
Newham
£8,106,208
Redbridge
£3,688,564
Richmond upon Thames
£3,168,044
Southwark
£5,028,292
Sutton
£2,491,676
Tower Hamlets
£3,999,064
Waltham Forest
£3,016,012
Wandsworth
£2,242,894
Westminster
£1,902,311
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