Written question asked by Greg Pope (Labour) on Monday, 19 January 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 21 January 2009. It was answered by Sarah McCarthy-Fry (Labour) on Tuesday, 27 January 2009 on behalf of the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Special Educational Needs

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the cost to local authorities was of residential school placements for children with statements of special educational needs in England in the last year for which figures are available.

Answer: The requested information is not collected centrally by the Department. However, during the 2008-09 financial year local authorities in England budgeted net expenditure of over £5.1 billion for the provision of education for children with special educational needs. It is not possible to identify how much of this £5.1 billion was for the total cost of residential school placements for children with statements of special educational needs as the data is not collected in that way.

Secondary information