Special Educational Needs: Suffolk

The department wants every child to have the best start in life, with help available earlier and locally when families need it. Our reforms aim to ensure all children will get the right support in their early years setting, school and college

Our vision for an inclusive education system for all children and young people requires a strong universal offer, built on high-quality adaptive teaching and early, effective support. To achieve this, we must equip and empower mainstream settings to become inclusive by design and remove common barriers to learning.

Pupils and students in Suffolk will benefit from their school or college’s share of the inclusive mainstream fund, which provides £500 million per financial year to boost inclusive practice. This funding helps to underpin each school’s Inclusion Strategy, setting out their inclusion activity and support through an Individual Support Plan for any child or young person with special educational needs and disabilities.

Suffolk’s allocation of £5,107,700 in 2026/27 to develop and deliver an ‘Experts at Hand’ offer, will strengthen the capability of mainstream education settings by providing access to support from key health and specialist education practitioners.

We are also investing at least £3.7 billion in high needs capital funding between 2025/2026 and 2029/2030, to support local authorities to provide places for children and young people with SEND, or who require alternative provision. In the 2025/26 and 2026/27 financial years, Suffolk has been allocated just over £9.4 million for both years through high needs provision capital allocations.