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<p>Health services are accessed through the NHS and not funded by the Department for
Education. Local authorities are responsible for providing respite care and short
breaks for disabled children, these services are funded through the main local government
settlement.</p><p>Helping children and young people to catch up on education missed
due to the COVID-19 outbreak remains a top priority of this government. Our £1.8 billion
investment announced as part of the Spending Review is targeted at those who most
need help catching up. It includes over £800 million to provide a universal uplift
with an additional 40 hours of education for students aged 16-19 who have the least
time left to recover; and an additional £1 billion of catch up funding directly to
schools so they can best decide how to support education recovery for the pupils that
need it, focused on evidence-based approaches.</p><p>The department has consistently
prioritised children with SEND in our recovery programmes, for example by providing
additional uplifts for those who attend specialist education providers (including
SEND units in mainstream schools) in both the catch-up premium in the 2020/21 academic
year and the recovery premium for the 2021/22 academic year, and providing additional
funding to special and alternative provision schools to provide one to one tutoring
for their pupils, with greater flexibility to schools to make it easier for them to
take on local tutors or use existing staff to supplement those employed through the
existing National Tutoring Programme. The 16-19 tuition fund continues to support
students with SEND as at present through small group tuition.</p><p>The department
is providing over £42 million in the 2021-22 financial year to continue funding projects
to support children with SEND. This investment will ensure that specialist organisations
around the country can continue to help strengthen local area performance, support
families and provide practical support to schools and colleges. It will strengthen
participation of parents and young people in the SEND system, ensuring they have a
voice in designing policies and services and have access to high quality information
and support.</p><p>Alongside recovery funding, the department is investing £2.6 billion
between the financial years 2022 and 2025 to deliver new places and improve existing
provision for pupils with SEND or who require alternative provision. This funding
represents a significant, transformational investment in new high needs provision
and will help deliver tens of thousands of new places.</p><p>More widely, the department
has continued to provide local authorities with their full high needs revenue funding
allocations throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, including more than £1.5 billion of
high needs funding over financial years 2020-21 and 2021-22, bringing the total high
needs funding allocated this year to more than £8 billion. The department announced
in summer 2021 that high needs funding will increase by a further £780 million, or
9.6%, in the next financial year, compared to this year. Through the Spending Review
the department secured for schools and children and young people with high needs an
increase of £4.7 billion by financial year 2024-25, compared to our original 2022-23
plans. This includes £1.6 billion in additional funding for 2022-23 budgets, on top
of the year-on-year increase of £2.4 billion already confirmed at the 2019 Spending
Review, and which is intended to help the sector respond to the pressures the department
knows they are seeing: in overall costs, in national insurance, on high needs, in
managing COVID-19 and in supporting children and young people to recover from the
COVID-19 outbreak. The department will confirm in due course how this funding will
be allocated in 2022-23 for schools and high needs.</p>
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