§ Mr. BreedTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make extra funds available to fund special needs education in rural areas.[138277]
§ Jacqui SmithResources are distributed to local education authorities through Standard Spending Assessments. These are calculated using information about the demographic, economic and social characteristics of an area. This includes a sparsity factor, which would take account of additional transport costs in areas such as Cornwall with dispersed populations, and consequently higher costs of transporting pupils with special educational needs.