SEND and Safety Valve Agreements

The new education secretary and her team have been questioned on the government’s education plans in parliament.

On SEND, it was confirmed that the government will continue to operate the ‘safety valve’ scheme for local authorities with large deficits already on the scheme, but that they will look at the use of ‘safety valve’ agreements going forward. Devon has now received ‘safety valve‘ funding as one of the 38 local authorities with the highest SEND deficit.

When questioned on a fair education funding system, she confirmed that the national funding formula where it allocates high needs funding, is being looked at carefully, with regards to whether any changes are required.