Special Educational Needs: Secondary Education
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the number and proportion of secondary schools that have an inclusion base; and what timetable she has set for ensuring that every secondary school has access to an inclusion base.
Answered by Georgia Gould
As a core part of our £3.7 billion high needs capital investment between 2025 and 2030, the department will invest in a transformational expansion of inclusion bases so they become a core part of every local education offer. According to the school census, 1 in 13 schools, or 1 in 7 secondary schools and 1 in 15 primary schools, have a local authority commissioned inclusion base. Additionally, in the January 2026 school omnibus survey the majority of primary school leaders (53%) and a large majority of secondary school leaders (85%) said that their school had a separate dedicated space used to support pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
We will introduce new data collection measures which will record which settings are operating a base and the pupils accessing it, to provide additional oversight.
In the SEND reform consultation, we set an ambition that in time, we expect every secondary school will have an inclusion base, with an equivalent number of places in local primary schools.
The department recently published guidance for schools and local authorities to help them set up and deliver high quality provision in inclusion bases, as well as support improvements in existing bases. Ofsted considers the quality of provision in inclusion bases and will use the guidance to help inform inspections.
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