Tag: Department for Education

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 9 February 2023.

Family Hubs offer early support to families and young children to help them overcome difficulties and build strong relationships.

• Services include help with infant feeding and perinatal mental health support as well as make it easier to access wider services such as smoking cessation and job advice
• This announcement builds on Prime Minister’s ambition to put strong families at the heart of communities, in recognition of how important they are for people’s life chances

Thousands of families across England will be offered help and support with issues such as infant feeding, mental health and relationship building thanks to Family Hubs being rolled out in local communities.

75 areas will benefit from the £300 million investment up to 2025, with the new hubs offering support from conception through to age 19, or up to 25 for children with special education needs and disabilities.

Strong, supportive families make for more stable communities and happier individuals. Investing in families and making sure they get the support they need from birth through to adulthood helps with children’s educational attainment, wellbeing and life chances, while also improving wider outcomes such as poor mental health and unemployment.

Previously these services could be disjointed and hard to navigate but family hubs will act as a ‘one stop shop’ to offer guidance and advice on a range of circumstances including, infant feeding, mental health support, health visits and parenting classes.

Hubs will also bring together wider wraparound services that can make a huge difference to people who need extra support – such as advice on getting into work, relationship building and stop smoking services.

To fast-track delivery of these services, 14 local authority areas will become trailblazers and receive extra funding. These trailblazers will lead the way and support other local authorities to improve services that are offered to families, so that these can be rolled out more widely across the country.

Today’s announcement builds on the Prime Minister’s ambition to put families at the centre of communities and delivers on the 2019 manifesto commitment to champion Family Hubs.

Children, Families and Wellbeing Minister, Claire Coutinho said:

Having children can be really tough as well as bringing so much joy. All families, from time to time, will need a helping hand.

Family hubs bring services together helping parents, carers, children and young people to access the support they need more easily.

Parenting advice ranges from support with breast feeding and mental health to guidance on how to give children a head start on their learning.

Separately, Government is also confirming the final five areas to receive investment from the Family Hubs Transformation Fund, which will transition services which used to operate under the Sure Start banner over to the Family Hub model. This will enable a further 12 local authorities across England to open family hubs by March 2024.*

This funding will provide thousands of families with access to support when they need it, including helping to give babies the best start in life, as set out in ‘Best Start for Life: a vision for the critical 1,001 days’ led by Dame Andrea Leadsom, which sets out six action areas to improve support for families between pregnancy and age two. And, as part of her success as the government’s Early Years Healthy Development Adviser, Dame Leadsom’s role will be extended until the end of parliament.

Dame Andrea Leadsom said:

Support for the earliest years is being transformed our ‘Start for Life’ offer will point families-to-be in the direction of their Family Hub, and the help they can get there will include a warm welcome, parenting advice, antenatal help, health visiting, mental health and infant feeding support and even advice on relationship building or how to get into work. There will be a strong focus on dads and co-parents who have for far too long been left out.

We all agree that universal education and universal healthcare are the right of every citizen. Surely, however, the best start for life is the most fundamental right of all. It is in the period from conception to the age of two that the building blocks for good lifelong physical and emotional health are laid down. There is quite literally no better place to invest, either for human happiness or value for taxpayers’ money!

A progress report will be published today outlining the progress the government has made against these commitments to date. It also sets out the government’s priorities for further work.

Parents will also be able to access a range of support through the hubs from midwifery to mental health support, health visiting to infant feeding advice. Hubs will also provide early language and communication development for young children to set the foundations for lifelong learning and prepare them for school at age five.

Minister Neil O’Brien said:

Every child should have the support to be able to reach their full potential.

There is robust evidence that the 1,001 critical days from pregnancy to the age of two are vital for development and impact a child’s physical and emotional health for the rest of their life.

Better access to family hubs and additional funding for critical Start for Life services will provide more families with the right support for their baby to get the best start in life – including support for mental health, building strong and healthy relationships and infant feeding.

Peter Fonagy, Chief Executive of the Anna Freud Centre, said:

Family Hubs make a positive difference to parents, carers and children by providing a single access point to services that can help them during challenging periods. We know how important early intervention is in improving physical, mental and emotional health outcomes for young people, and in helping to build a strong foundation for them to prosper in later life.

We are proud to lead the National Centre for Family Hubs, which provides a national platform for the implementation of family hubs in local areas, and to be able to extend support to more areas across the country.

Our work champions, develops and disseminates evidence and best practice across communities to help local authorities to build family hubs that are accessible and inclusive to all, particularly those families who are living in poverty, experiencing discrimination and exclusion, and those who have children with special educational needs or disabilities.

The early years are vital for children’s development and early language and communication skills. Start for Life services will help parents to form those secure lifelong bonds with their babies and children; and family hubs will provide advice and support to parents to encourage them to chat, play and read with their children to support  early development.

Notes to Editors

To view the 75 local authorities to receive a share of the funding from the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme, click here.

The 14 trailblazer areas include:

• Torbay
• Sheffield
• County Durham
• Cornwall
• Salford
• Kent
• Sunderland
• Manchester
• Northumberland
• Hull
• Coventry
• Blackpool
• East Sussex
• Isle of Wight

*The 12 local authorities to receive a share of the Family Hubs Transformation Fund are:

• Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole
• Brighton and Hove
• Cheshire East
• Cumbria
• Dorset
• Hammersmith and Fulham
• Leicestershire
• Merton
• Solihull
• Stockport
• Wirral
• York

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 8 February 2023.

The Department for Education (DfE) has confirmed that the maximum Plan 2 and the Postgraduate loan interest rate will be 6.9% between 1 March 2023 and 31 May 2023.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 2 February 2023.

Government to transform children’s social care, with ambitious plans that put families at the heart of reform .

Vulnerable children will be better supported to stay with their families in safe and loving homes, as part of an overhaul of children’s social care.

Backed by £200 million over the next two years, a new, ambitious and wide-ranging Children’s Social Care Implementation Strategy will transform the current care system to focus on more early support for families, reducing the need for crisis response at a later stage.

The plan responds to recommendations made by three independent reviews by Josh MacAlister, the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel into the tragic murders of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson, and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The findings revealed the current care system is often fragmented, siloed, and struggling to meet the needs of children and families across England.

Families will receive local early help and intervention with challenges such as addiction, domestic abuse or mental health, to help families to stay together where possible and overcome adversity. This will start in 12 local authorities and is backed by £45m to embed a best practice model that will then be shared more widely.

Children who grow up in loving, stable homes tend to have better outcomes, which is why the proposals put relationships at the heart of the care system and prioritise family-like placements where a child can no longer live with their parents. Kinship care, where a child is placed with a relative or close family friend, will be prioritised by simplifying the process and providing more support to extended families, such as grandparents, aunties, uncles and others. Recognising the transition within a family can be challenging for all involved, the government will also provide training and support to kinship carers.

Foster carers will also see an above-inflation increase in their allowance to help cover the increasing costs of caring for a child in their home, in recognition of the brilliant care they provide to children. This is alongside £25 million over the next two years on a recruitment and retention programme, which is the largest investment in recent history, helping to attract more people to offer a loving home for children in need. Depending on local need, foster care recruitment will focus on areas where there is a particular shortage of placements for children such as sibling groups, teenagers, unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC), those that have suffered complex trauma or parent and child foster homes.

Today’s announcement echoes the Prime Minister’s intention to better support all families, as evidence shows that strong, supportive families make for more stable communities and happier individuals.

Minister for Children, Families and Wellbeing, Claire Coutinho said:

Children in care deserve the same love and stability as everyone else. Yet we’ve seen from the two tragic murders of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson that more needs to be done to protect our most vulnerable children.

Our wide-ranging reforms will put strong relationships at the heart of the care system. From supporting our brilliant foster carers, kinship carers and social workers to getting early help to families and improving children’s homes, we want every child to get the support and protection they need.

Measures announced today in the strategy, Stable Homes, Built on Love, include:

Introducing more effective, joined-up family help for those that are struggling.

Up to 12 local areas will get over £45m to test a new approach to Family Help to provide increased, evidence-based support for families to overcome issues to prevent problems from escalating. In a welcoming and non-judgemental way, the new service will help families with issues such as domestic abuse or poor mental health, giving them access to local support with the focus on the help they need rather than bureaucratic boundaries and assessments between services and professionals.

Where a child is at risk of harm, experts will intervene swiftly and decisively to protect them.

A new Child Protection Lead Practitioner role will have advanced, specialist training, and will work in a fully joined up way with other services such as the police, to better identify and respond to significant harm. The change will mean services work more effectively to protect children from harms that happen outside of the home, such as criminal exploitation and serious violence.

Harnessing the value of family networks by supporting the kinship care system.

There will be a focus on improved support and reducing barriers to kinship care, including investing £9 million in a kinship care training and support offer for all kinship carers. The government will explore the case for a new financial allowance, possible additional workplace entitlements and options for an extension of legal aid for kinship carers who become Special Guardians or who hold Child Arrangement Orders.

Transforming the experiences of children in care and care leavers, by prioritising children in care living in homes close to their family, friends, communities and schools.

In addition to the recruitment programme and the above inflation increase to allowances, the government is investing £30m in family finding, befriending and mentoring programmes to support children in care and care leavers to find and maintain loving relationships.  The government will also increase the leaving care allowance from £2,000 to £3,000 from April this year, an above inflation increase to help them set up home independently. For care leavers undertaking apprenticeships, there will be an increase to the bursary available from £1000 to £3,000.

Expanding and strengthening the children’s social care workforce.

Local authorities will be supported to recruit up to 500 new child and family social worker apprentices and there will be consultation on proposals to reduce over-reliance on agency social workers. The government will also introduce a new Early Career Framework for social workers that will make sure that social workers have the knowledge and skills they need to support and protect children.

Setting clearer direction for everyone who works in the system, through a new Children’s Social Care National Framework and Dashboard.

The National Framework, published today for consultation, sets out clear outcomes that should be achieved across all local authorities to improve the lives of children and families, raising the quality of practice across the country.

The government has now reached its target to reduce the number of children’s social care services judged to be ‘Inadequate’ to 10% or lower. This collective effort from government and the Children’s Social Care sector, has halved failure rates across the country within five years, bringing improved standards for thousands of children and families across the country. The strategy builds on this work, to support more children within the care system.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 20 January 2023.

Deliveries of defibrillators begin today (20 January) to all state-funded schools in England that don’t currently have a life-saving device.

Last year, the government committed to supplying state-funded schools across England with defibrillators to make sure there is a device in every school.

It follows campaigning from the Oliver King Foundation and its founder Mark King, who has worked tirelessly to raise awareness of the need for defibrillators since he tragically lost his son at the age of 12 to cardiac arrest while swimming at school.

The deliveries of the first defibrillators mark the start of a roll out of over 20,000 defibrillators to almost 18,000 state-funded schools by the end of the academic year.

The government is also supporting schools in making defibrillators available to the community, with external heated defibrillator cabinets being provided to primary and special schools in areas where provision is lower.

An internal cabinet is being provided to secondary schools that are receiving two or more defibrillators, so one can be placed at the school’s sports facility, where a cardiac arrest is more likely to happen.

The Oliver King Foundation and other leading charities, including the British Heart Foundation, Resuscitation Council UK and St John Ambulance, have supported the creation of updated guidance which will give schools the tools and knowledge they need to use their new defibrillators.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said:

Today we’re celebrating a huge milestone as we start deliveries of defibrillators to schools, working towards every school having one by the end of the academic year.

None of this would have come about without the relentless and brave campaigning of Mark King and the Oliver King Foundation, and we are extremely grateful to him and other leading charities for the ongoing support they will doubtless provide schools from lesson plans to staff training.

Founder of the Oliver King Foundation Mark King said:

This is a landmark moment and will be welcomed by pupils, parents and teachers up and down the country.

It is a proud day for us because we’ve campaigned for schools to have access to defibrillators for over a decade. It is a major victory for the Oliver King Foundation.

Defibrillators save lives and I have no doubt that lives will now be saved so that families do not have to suffer the heartbreak of unnecessarily losing a child. This is for our Ollie.

This is the largest defibrillator programme in England to date and will ensure that pupils and staff have access to this lifesaving first aid equipment.

The new guidance provides advice for schools on how to make their defibrillator available to the community. The government is also encouraging schools to sign up to The Circuit, the national defibrillator network.

As part of the rollout, awareness videos are being provided to show how simple defibrillators are to use, and schools are being encouraged to share these videos in staff meetings and assemblies.

This follows the announcement last month of a new £1 million fund to increase the number of defibrillators in communities most in need – providing an estimated 1,000 new defibrillators in community spaces across England.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 17 January 2023.

Ofsted has today published data on school inspections carried out up to the end of December 2022.

It shows that around 89% of all 22,000 schools were good or outstanding at their most recent inspection. This is an increase from 86% in August 2019 and 88% in August 2022.

Initial signs for the 2022/23 academic year are that inspection outcomes continue to paint a positive picture, and in some cases are even more positive than last year.

The data also shows that schools previously judged requires improvement (RI) have done particularly well last term, as 78% of those inspected improved to good, compared with 70% in 2021/22.

The vast majority of formerly outstanding schools visited this year had been exempt from routine inspection between 2012 and 2020. Since the government lifted the exemption, most of these schools have lost the top grade on reinspection. However, a slightly higher proportion of the previously exempt schools have remained outstanding this year compared with 2021/22 (21% v 17%), and a lower proportion were found to require improvement or to be inadequate (13% v 21%).

Ofsted’s Chief Inspector Amanda Spielman said:

Every child deserves to attend a high-quality school and parents should be reassured that, despite some gradual rebalancing between good and outstanding, the overall proportion of schools with one of the two top grades continues to rise.

Overall, the picture since the pandemic is an increasingly positive one. I was particularly pleased to see so many schools that required improvement move to good last term. I’d like to thank everyone who is involved in helping these schools to improve.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 11 January 2023.

• Multimillion pound package to help students cover living and other costs.
• Tuition fees frozen for next two years to reduce student debt levels
• Measures are part of government’s drive to support households with the cost of living

Students in need are to benefit from additional financial support designed to ease cost of living pressures and help them to meet everyday costs whilst they are completing their studies.

In recognition of the challenges some students have faced due to the global rise in inflation, the government has announced today (11 January) that it will provide an additional £15 million in hardship funding this financial year so that universities can provide extra support to students that need it most.

It builds on the significant £261 million that the government has already provided to the Office for Students (OfS) for the 2022/23 academic year which universities can draw upon to boost their own hardship funds.

Universities are responsible for ensuring students who need help get the support they need, including through their own hardship funds, or through bursaries and scholarships. Many universities have stepped up their efforts this year offering innovative schemes to support their students. Examples include:

• The University of Southampton which has made a total of £1.1 million in the current academic year available to students to cover emergency costs,
• Queen Mary University of London which has a bursary scheme automatically provided to any domestic undergraduate from a family whose annual taxable income is below £20,000, and
• The University of York which announced that £150 would be given to student households who are finding it difficult to pay their bills as part of a £6 million package to support students most in need.

The government has also confirmed today that loans and grants to support undergraduate and postgraduate students with living and other costs will be increased by 2.8% for the 2023/24 academic year.

Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education Robert Halfon said:

University is an investment, setting students up for future success, helping them to climb the ladder of opportunity and gain invaluable skills for the world of work.

We recognise students continue to face financial challenges, which is why we are increasing loans and grants for living and other costs for a further year.  For the sixth year in a row, we have frozen tuition fees for a full-time undergraduate course at a maximum of £9,250 which will reduce the initial amount of debt students will take on.

To support universities to top up their own hardship funds we are also making an additional £15 million available. This will bring the total available to universities to draw on in supporting their students in hardship to £276 million this academic year.

I’m really pleased to see that so many universities are already stepping up efforts to support their students through a variety of programmes. These schemes have already helped students up and down the country and I urge anyone who is worried about their circumstances to speak to their university.

For the sixth year in a row, the government has confirmed it will freeze tuition fees for a standard full-time course in the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic year in England at a maximum of £9,250. This move will help provide better value for students by reducing the initial amount of debt students will take on.

The government regularly monitors the interest rates set on student loans against the interest rates prevailing on the market (PMR) for comparable loans. The government confirmed that the maximum Plan 2 and the Postgraduate loan interest rate will be 6.5% between 1 December 2022 and 28 February 2023.

From the 2023/24 academic year, the government will cut interest rates for new students to RPI only so that, under these terms, graduates will not repay more than they originally borrowed, when adjusted for inflation.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 9 January 2023.

Increase in funding worth an additional £125 million for 16-19 education for school sixth forms, colleges and other providers next year.

Young people to benefit from cash boost so they continue to have access to high-quality courses including T Levels, A levels and other technical and vocational qualifications.

Targeted funding increases to support engineering, construction and digital subjects to help with the additional costs of teacher recruitment and retention for these key subjects.

Part of the government’s drive to make sure more young people climb the ladder of opportunity and businesses can tap into the skilled workforce they need for the future.

Young people aged 16-19 are set to benefit from a funding boost that will ensure they can continue to access high-quality education and go on to secure great jobs.

The government has today (Monday 9 January) announced increased funding rates worth an additional £125 million for schools, colleges and other providers delivering education to 16- to 19-year-olds next year (2023 to 2024).

The funding will mean young people, regardless of where they live or their background, will continue to have access to the courses and qualifications they need to build successful careers. These include T Levels and A levels and will also help meet the future skills needs of businesses and the economy.

Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education Robert Halfon said:

Our ambition is to transform young people’s life chances by giving them the chance to climb the education and skills ladder of opportunity.

That is why we are investing in resources and skills qualifications that will offer more learning for students and access to high-quality qualifications including T Levels, A Levels and technical qualifications.

The funding announced today will see:

The national funding rate for students aged 16 and 17 and students aged 18 and over with high needs increased by 2.2% to £4,642. In addition, funding will continue to be provided for an extra 40 hours per student to support them catching up on time lost due to the pandemic.

An increase in funding rates for engineering, construction, and digital subjects to help education providers with the additional costs of recruiting and retaining great teachers so young people benefit from excellent teaching.

The funding is part of the £1.6 billion for further education announced at Spending Review in 2021. It is in addition to the extra £291m announced for 16 to 19 education in 2021 to 2022 and the £400m increase in funding that the government provided in 2020 to 2021.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 5 January 2023.

• New careers programme will open primary school children’s eyes to the world of future job possibilities and challenge stereotypes
• Young people to benefit from new law so they learn about the variety of exciting career routes available to them including technical routes to jobs as well as academic
• Part of government’s drive to make sure all young people get high quality advice to make informed choices on the skills needed for a successful career

Primary school pupils are to benefit from a new careers programme that will encourage them to think about future jobs early, whilst nurturing aspirations and challenging stereotypes.

Evidence shows that children start to form ideas about their future as they start primary school. By linking lessons in an age-appropriate way to different careers, training and skills, the programme will bring learning alive and inspire pupils about the world of work. It will also provide opportunities for pupils to meet employers and role models from a range of industries, helping to raise aspirations and link their learning to future skills, jobs and careers.

From 1 January, young people will also benefit from strengthened careers advice through a change in the law that will see all year 8- 13 pupils have at least six opportunities to meet a range of providers of technical education. By hearing directly from training providers, pupils will get to understand the full range of opportunities available to them, including apprenticeships, T Levels and Higher Technical Qualifications, not just a traditional academic route.

This builds on the requirement that every secondary school should offer their pupils at least one experience of a workplace by age 16 and a further work experience by age 18, giving them the opportunity to get a sense of the skills that are valued in the workplace to forge a great career.

The primary school scheme will be rolled out across 55 disadvantaged areas of the country where school outcomes are the weakest and have been for some time and delivers on a commitment in the Schools White Paper. It will support more than 600,000 pupils in over 2,200 primary schools, giving them the kick start they need to boost their ambitions, and is backed by £2.6 million.

Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education Robert Halfon said:

To deliver the future workforce that this country needs, it is essential that careers advice and work experience helps young people from all backgrounds to climb the ladder of opportunity.

The changes we are making to boost our careers programme will raise ambitions from an early age for thousands of children in primary schools across the country, while providing opportunities to unlock talent, think about skills, engage with employers and discover different workplaces.

The new primary careers programme will be coordinated by The Careers & Enterprise Company (CEC), working with Teach First who will provide training and support primary school teachers in disadvantaged areas to deliver the scheme to their pupils.

Oli de Botton, CEO of The Careers & Enterprise Company said:

I know from my time as a Headteacher how important it is to inspire young people about their future – raising their sights and dispelling stereotypes. Our new primary programme will bring careers inspiration to children early in their school life by connecting them with role models and showing them how different subjects relate to jobs.

This programme will develop the skills of teachers to deliver career-related learning in lessons. It will help young people from disadvantaged communities explore the world of work in exciting and meaningful ways, raising aspirations and reducing barriers – encouraging children to dream big.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 22 December 2022.

Government confirms funding for Holiday Activities and Food programme for 2023, supporting hundreds of thousands of children from low-income families.

Hundreds of thousands of children across England will continue to access free, nutritious food and engaging activities over the school holidays, as the Government today (22nd December) confirms £200m to fund the Holiday Activities and Food Programme throughout 2023.

These free holiday clubs run across England, supporting parents with childcare costs over the Christmas, Easter and summer holidays by providing free, nutritious meals and enriching activities, such as football, play sessions and cooking classes.  New figures out today show that around 600,000 children benefitted from the scheme over summer 2022 across over 8,000 clubs, events or organised activities in England.

To continue supporting families most in need, the Government has confirmed over £200m in funding for local authorities for the programme in 2023, enabling every local authority across England to continue to provide for their communities.

Speaking at a Holiday Activities and Food club in Guildford today, Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan, said:

Giving children access to nutritious meals and fun, enriching activities over the holidays supports children’s mental, physical and social development and offers them opportunities that they may otherwise not have, whilst helping parents who may not be able to afford similar childcare.

It’s fantastic to see that over half a million children benefitted from the programme over the summer, and I’m delighted to announce the continuation of the programme into 2023.

The Government’s Holiday Activities and Food programme started as a pilot in 2018. It was created in response to the pressures that low-income families can face over the holidays, with some children being less likely to access organised out-of-school activities, and more likely to experience social isolation and ‘unhealthy holidays’ in terms of nutrition and physical health.

It provides for school-aged children from reception to year 11 who receive benefits related free school meals and is available for local authorities to fund clubs over summer, Easter and Christmas breaks.

Evidence suggests that attending holiday clubs can have a positive impact on children’s attainment, health and wellbeing. This is especially true of clubs that provide enrichment activities as well as meals – and that involve children and parents in preparing healthy food.

The continuation of the Holiday Activities and Food programme is part of the Government’s commitment to support vulnerable families with rising costs due to global inflationary pressures, particularly in disadvantaged areas. This programme runs alongside the Household Support Fund which supports vulnerable households through small payments for food, clothing, and utilities. The fund has recently been extended to 30th March 2024 with an additional £1 billion to be used by used by local authorities to support vulnerable households.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 16 December 2022.

Pupils across England will benefit from transformative new school buildings as 239 more schools and sixth forms will benefit from renovation projects.

The new projects build on the 161 that have previously been announced, with construction works now nearing completion on the most advanced sites. It means in total 400 out of 500 schools and sixth forms have now been selected for rebuilds through the ten-year School Rebuilding Programme.

The new buildings will be more energy efficient for future winter resilience and net-zero in operation, with old facilities replaced by modern education environments including new classrooms, sports halls and dining rooms.

In addition to the School Rebuilding Programme, the Government is continuing to invest in the school estate with annual capital funding. Over £13 billion has been allocated since 2015 to maintain and improve school facilities across England, including £1.8 billion in financial year 2022-23.

The Government is also today setting out school funding allocations for local authorities for next year, following the extra £2 billion funding boost for schools for next year and the year after announced at the Autumn Statement. School funding will be at its highest ever level in real terms per pupil, totalling £58.8 billion by 2024-25.

Gillian Keegan, Secretary of State for Education, said:

Education is a top priority for this Government. That is why, despite facing challenging economic circumstances, we are investing a record amount in our schools and colleges. Today’s announcement will transform hundreds of schools across the country and ensure they are fit for the future.

The additional funding, alongside fantastic new facilities, will mean our brilliant teachers can get on with what they do best – and inspire the next generation.

The funding allocations announced today mean:

• Funding for children and young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities will increase by almost £1 billion – a 10.6% increase compared to this year.
• Special schools and alternative provision receive an average 3.4%per place increase in their funding in 2023-24, as a result of the additional funding from the Autumn Statement.
• Funding for mainstream schools will increase by over £2.5 billion in 2023-24, compared to this year.
• Local authorities will receive average funding increases of 3.4% for the 3- and 4-year-old free childcare entitlements and four per cent for the 2-year-old entitlement, as the Early Years National Funding Formulae are updated.

On top of this, the increased investment means pupil premium funding rates for 2023-24 will increase by 5% – equivalent to £180 million – compared to this year, supporting schools to raise educational outcomes for disadvantaged pupils. The increase will support schools to continue using high quality tutoring as a key means of targeted support for the children who need it most, and embed tutoring in schools long-term.

The Government has today published the detailed methodology for how the new grant for mainstream schools will allocate additional funding following the Autumn Statement, so schools can plan for how much funding they should receive. All mainstream schools will receive their additional funding from April 2023.