Gavin Williamson, MP for South Staffordshire, has obtained a pledge from the Schools Minister, The Rt Hon David Laws MP, to address inequalities in school funding.
Gavin recently called on the Department for Education to address the ‘disgraceful discrepancy’ in Special Educational Needs funding between Staffordshire and other local authorities.
He wrote a letter to the Minister after a collective of special schools within the local area raised the issue with him.
According to the cohort’s research, in Staffordshire the average student with SEN receives less than half of the funding given to many students living in other Local Authorities.
In his response to Gavin, The Rt Hon David Laws MP said: “Initially our redistribution of funding will focus on primary and secondary schools and their pupils. However, we are also looking at how to create a fairer distribution between local authorities of funds for special schools and children with high needs in the longer term.
“The current funding from Government to local authorities for high needs is based essentially on what each local authority has spent on high needs in the past, because we cannot act suddenly to reduce funding that is currently being spent on such vulnerable children. One challenge in addressing unfairness in the distribution of high needs funding is that we do not fully understand the reasons for the cost differences between local authorities.”
There are two special schools in South Staffordshire, Cherry Trees Special School and Wightwick Hall.
Gavin Williamson recently visited Cherry Trees Special School, where he discussed issues relating to SEN and funding with headmaster Paul Elliott.
Gavin has also submitted a series of Freedom of Information requests to local Councils - which are responsible for distributing the SEN funding - in a bid to obtain the latest figures.
Gavin said: “Any discrepancy in funding is disgraceful. There is no excuse for students with special needs in South Staffordshire to be receiving so much less money than pupils in other parts of the country.
“This is not only a postcode lottery, but a complete failure of some of our most vulnerable youngsters. I will continue to fight to see that this injustice addressed and to ensure our children do not lose out on the funding they need to equip them for the future.”