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Guidance

High needs provision capital allocations

Local authority funding to support the provision of new places and improve existing provision for children with SEND or requiring alternative provision.

Updates to this page

From:
Department for Education
Published:
9 April 2021
Last updated:
25 June 2026
Show all updates

  1. Updated 'High needs provision capital allocations: 2021 to 2027'.

  2. Updated 'High needs provision capital allocations: 2021 to 2026' to include 2027. Updated 'High needs provision capital allocations: explanatory note' and 'High needs provision capital allocations: guidance' for 2026 to 2027. Added the 'High needs provision capital allocations: memorandum of understanding', 'High needs provision capital allocations: grant determination letter financial year 2026 to 2027' and 'Special and alternative provision free school places: grant determination letter for 2026 to 2027'.

  3. Added 'High needs provision capital allocations: grant determination for 2025 to 2026' and removed previous years.

  4. Added 'High needs provision capital allocations: 2021 to 2026', replacing the 2021 to 2025 version. Updated 'High needs provision capital allocations: guidance' and updated the explanatory note.

  5. Updated 'High needs provision capital allocations: 2023 to 2025' with new local authority information and changed its title to 'High needs provision capital allocations: 2021 to 2025'.

  6. Added 'High needs provision capital allocations: 2023 to 2025' and 'High needs provision capital allocations: grant determination for 2023 to 2025'. Updated the explanatory note and guidance to reflect new methodology.

  7. Updated ‘High needs provision capital allocations for 2022 to 2024’ to reflect early payments made in March 2023 to help manage cash flow due to inflation, and additional funding as part of the safety valve programme. Cumbria has split into 2 new local authorities, Cumberland and Westmorland and Furness. Added ‘High needs provision capital allocations: grant determination for the 2023 to 2024 financial year'. The only changes to this year's document are the dates.

  8. Updated the 'High needs provision capital allocations for 2022 to 2024' spreadsheet with new local authority information.

  9. High needs provision capital allocations updated for 2022.

  10. Updated the 'High needs provision capital allocations for 2021 to 2022' spreadsheet with new local authority information.

  11. First published.

Applies to England

Documents

High needs provision capital allocations: 2021 to 2027

MS Excel Spreadsheet, 82.8 KB

High needs provision capital allocations: explanatory note

HTML

High needs provision capital allocations: guidance

HTML

High needs provision capital allocations: memorandum of understanding

MS Word Document, 429 KB

High needs provision capital allocations: grant determination letter for 2026 to 2027

PDF, 104 KB, 3 pages

Special and alternative provision free school alternative places: grant determination letter for 2026 to 2027

PDF, 104 KB, 3 pages

Details

High needs provision capital allocations are provided to local authorities to support the provision of new places and improve existing provision for children and young people:

  • with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)
  • requiring alternative provision (AP)

The allocations spreadsheet shows how much funding has been allocated to each local authority since the 2021 to 2022 financial year. This has been updated to reflect the £860 million we are investing in the 2026 to 2027 financial year and the funding that some local authorities will be receiving in the 2026 to 2027 and 2027 to 2028 financial years in place of a previously planned special or AP free school.

The explanatory note shows how we calculated the funding for each local authority in the latest round of allocations (2026 to 2027).

The guidance document explains what local authorities can spend the funding on, including how local authorities can invest their funding to improve mainstream inclusion. Refer to Inclusive education estates for further information on how to improve inclusion and accessibility in mainstream education estates.

The memorandum of understanding applies to the high needs provision capital allocations for 2026 to 2027 only. It does not apply to funding between 2021 to 2022 and 2025 to 2026, or to funding provided in place of a previously planned special or AP free school.

We also provide capital funding to local authorities to create places for mainstream pupils through the basic need allocations.

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