Pre-school Education: Special Educational Needs

The department aims to set every child up to have the best start in life, and this includes delivering access to high quality early education and childcare for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Local authorities have a duty to secure sufficient childcare, including for children with SEND. They are expected to report annually to elected council members on how they are meeting this duty and make their report available and accessible to parents.

The department continues to monitor sufficiency through regular contact with local authorities. Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, we discuss what action is being taken to address those issues and, where needed, support them through our childcare sufficiency support contract.

The department has published allocations for £740 million high needs capital funding in the 2025/26 financial year to support children and young people with SEND or who require alternative provision. Local authorities are free to choose to spend this across the 0-25 age range and it is ultimately up to local authorities to determine how to best prioritise their funding. Guidance published alongside the allocations encourages local authorities to use the funding to set up resourced provisions or special educational needs units in mainstream schools.

Local authorities can meet the costs of children aged five and under with high needs in different ways from their high needs budget. This may include providing SEND support directly as a central service for young children with high needs and/or resources for early years providers to enable them to make the required provision.