Special Educational Needs: Finance

The core schools budget is increasing by £1.7 billion in the 2026/27 financial year.

Through the Dedicated Schools Grant, Dorset (which allocates funding for West Dorset) is receiving £269.6 million for mainstream schools in the2026/27 financial year. This translates into £6,558 per pupil on average (including premises and excluding growth funding), which represents a 2.3% increase in funding per-pupil compared to the 2025/26 financial year.

The schools national funding formula (NFF) allocates funding based on schools’ and pupils’ characteristics. It is right that schools which have a larger proportion of pupils with additional needs receive additional funding to support them.

The NFF accounts for the particular challenges faced by small schools in rural areas through the lump sum and sparsity factor. The government will be reviewing the operation of the schools NFF for the 2027/28 financial year and future years.

High needs funding for children and young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is continuing at an increased level of over £12 billion in the 2026/27 financial year in England, following an increase of 11% in 2025/26. Our aim is to establish a fair education funding system that directs funding to where it is needed. We will be looking carefully at what changes to make to the distribution of funding in support of the SEND reforms, including funding for SEND provision in rural areas.

The SEND Reform consultation document set out additional funding over the next 3 years, including the £1.6 billion Inclusive Mainstream Fund for schools, colleges and early years settings, and £1.8 billion for local authorities to provide an Experts At Hand offer to mainstream settings (the grant for the latter will allocate around £2.2 million to Dorset local authority in the 2026/27 financial year).