We now have 43 local authority members from a broad spectrum of councils from across England, from Northumberland in the north, to Cornwall and Devon in the south, East Riding of Yorkshire to the East and Cumberland Council to the west.

While many of our members are large, rural ‘shire’ local authorities, we also have a number of unitary authorities with densely populated areas. The thing all of our members have in common is that they receive among the lowest education funding and have a desire to see education funding levelled up.

While some in-roads towards fairness have been made with the introduction of the National Funding Formula in 2018, progress is slow and it will take many more years to close the gap.

Government has acknowledged the unfairness, but the disparity continues in both School and High Needs funding, with some schools receiving £5,000 less per pupil than others.

The differences in funding can be so great, similar neighbouring authorities with equal numbers of High Needs pupils can see a difference in SEND funding of £30m. We believe that is not just.

When f40 was first launched more than 20 years ago, its sole focus was around the unfairness of funding. However, in recent years, our members have become increasingly concerned about quantum of funding, with budgets failing to keep up with growing costs, expectations and demands on schools.

Real terms funding has not kept pace, forcing schools to make cuts in provision and staffing, with issues exacerbated for those that receive the lowest level of funding.

And during the past five years, the focus has increasingly been on the crisis in SEND, with schools and local authorities unable to meet the rising need for extra support, along with an increase in the complexity of need. Children are often not provided with the right level of support quickly enough or in the right environment as funding has not kept pace with demand and school-specific inflation.

Local authorities across England are expected to have a cumulative deficit SEND budget of £5bn by 2026.

f40 continues to fight for fairer funding, along with greater investment in mainstream and SEND education, and major reform that focuses on improving inclusion in schools and enhancing early help for those children who need more support. We would also like to see greater accountability and better regulation of the independent SEND sector.