National School Funding Reform

1. ‘I don’t know - you wait all decade for a significant change in Special Educational Needs legislation and then three come along at once’

2. 2013-14National school funding reformSupport and aspiration: a new approach to special educational needs and disabilityThe children and families Bill

3. National School Funding Reform What are the key changes: • Simplified school funding formula • “Pupil led” funding system • Funding based on October census • First step towards a national funding formula • Significant changes to funding of “High needs” pupils

4. Funding for High Needs Pupils Covers “High Needs” pupils in: • Special Schools • Special Units • High needs pupils in mainstream schools and academies • Alternative Provision (PRU/SILS) • Post 16 – in FE, schools, other providers • Independent Non-Maintained Special Schools (INMSS)

5. Overview: Reform of high needs funding Pre-16 SEN and AP Post-16 SEN and LDD Mainstream settings Specialist settings All settings Mainstream per-student funding (as calculated by the national 16-19 funding system) Element 1: Core education funding Mainstream per-pupil funding (AWPU) Base funding of £10,000 for SEN and £8,000 for AP placements, which is roughly equivalent to the level up to which a mainstream provider would have contributed to the additional support provision of a high needs pupil. Base funding is provided on the basis of planned places. Element 2: Additional support funding Contribution of £6,000 to additional support required by a pupil with high needs, from the notional SEN budget Contribution of £6,000 to additional support required by a student with high needs Element 3: Top-up funding “Top-up” funding from the commissioner to meet the needs of each pupil or student placed in the institution This diagram appeared as Figure 1 (p.43) of School funding reform: Next steps towards a fairer system.

6. Academy funding principles “ Academies should receive equivalent level of per-pupil funding as they would receive from the local authority (LA) as a maintained school. Academies also receive funding to meet their additional responsibilities that are no longer provided for them by the local authority” “becoming an academy should not bring about a financial advantage or disadvantage to a school”

7. Support and aspiration: The Green Paper proposed: A radically different system that: a new approach to identifying SEN a single assessment process and ‘Education, Health and Care Plan’ supports better life outcomes for young people a local offer of all services available gives parents more confidence by giving them control parents to have the option of a personal budget by 2014 giving parents a real choice of school transfers power to front-line professionals and to local communities greater independence to the assessment of children's needs

8. Support and aspiration: Pathfinders

9. Support and aspiration: • Parents will be able to express their preference for any state-funded school and have it considered by the local authority on the same basis. This change will extend the provision that already exists in law for parents to express a preference for any maintained school to Academies and special Academies, Free Schools and special Free Schools • Parents have the right to make representations for an independent or non-maintained special school for their child and to have those representations considered

10. Support and aspiration: The local offer The purpose of the local offer is to enable parents and young people to see more clearly what services are available in their area and how to access them. The offer will include provision from birth to 25, across education, health and social care and should be developed in conjunction with children and young people, parents and carers, and local services, including schools, colleges, health and social care agencies. It is intended to: • provide clarity and confidence for parents; • support earlier intervention; • reduce the need for assessment: a number of local authorities make a minimum level of short breaks provision readily available, and without costly assessment processes. This meets the needs of many families1; • identify need and gaps in provision; • provide an evidence base for improving progress and securing better outcomes, at school and local level.

11. Support and aspiration: The local offer • Funding to meet pupils’ special educational needs is delegated to schools in a notional SEN budget; from their notional SEN budget schools will contribute the first £6,000 of additional support for pupils with SEN. • Local authorities are required, under existing Regulations, to set out what schools are expected to provide from their delegated funds (and Academies through their equivalent funding).and to secure the agreement of the Schools Forum. • These agreements should cover both the provision which schools are expected to make from their delegated budget and, what the local authority expects to provide from its centrally held budget, known as the High Needs Block in the new funding arrangements. It is important that the respective responsibilities for provision are clearly articulated.

12. Support and aspiration: The local offer School Information: • teaching and learning; • the way in which learning and well-being is assessed; • the ways in which access to the curriculum is facilitated;drawing on specialist expertise, within and beyond the school; • pastoral support; • intervention programmes over and above high quality classroom teaching for all pupils; • equipment that schools provide; • staffing arrangements to promote access; • more intensive engagement with parents and carers; • monitoring and evaluating the impact of the ‘additional and different’ arrangements on progress and outcomes for pupils with SEN.

13. Support and aspiration: The new SEN code of practice • Mainstream educational settings must use their best endeavours to secure the special educational provision called for by the child’s or young person’s needs. • With the right training, strategies and support in place the majority of children and young people with SEN are already successfully included in mainstream education. • All education settings, including nurseries, early years providers, schools, colleges and other providers, should have high aspirations for all children and young people, including those with SEN.

14. Support and aspiration: The new SEN code of practice • With the right training, strategies and support in place the majority of children and young people with SEN are already successfully included in mainstream education. This is reflected in the general principle in law that children and young people with SEN should be educated in mainstream settings. That principle is supported by provisions safeguarding the interests of all children and young people and ensuring that the preferences of the child’s parents or the young person for where they should be educated are met wherever possible.

15. Support and aspiration: The new SEN code of practice The School Admissions Code of Practice requires children and young people with SEN to be treated as fairly as others. Admissions authorities (Schools) : • must consider applications from parents of children who have SEN who do not have an EHC plan on the basis of the school’s published admissions criteria as part of normal admissions procedures • must not refuse to admit a child who has SEN but does not have an EHC plan because they do not feel able to cater for those needs • cannot refuse to admit a child on the grounds that they do not have an Education, Health and Plan

16. Support and aspiration: The new SEN code of practice All educational settings should accurately identify children or young people with SEN and should consider which children and young people have particular needs which might need additional or different provision in order to achieve their outcomes. As part of a graduated approach to tackling need they should first: • consider their core teaching and adapt that to meet needs of the cohort as a whole; • ensure that parents of children are fully engaged, consulted and informed and agreement is reached on how the child’s needs will be met; • ensure that the child or young person is fully engaged, consulted and informed and agreement is reached on how their needs will be met.

17. Support and aspiration: The new SEN code of practice To ensure children and young people with SEN receive the right levels of support and intervention to help them to achieve good outcomes, schools and colleges should create a sharper focus on helping teachers to differentiate between: • Those children and young people who need support to catch up with their peers; and • Those children and young people who need a more tailored approach to address a specific SEN that is impacting on their ability to learn.

18. Support and aspiration: The new SEN code of practice Governing bodies of maintained mainstream schools, maintained nursery schools and the proprietors of Academy schools (including free schools) must ensure that there is a qualified teacher designated as Special Educational Needs (SEN) co-ordinator (SENCO) for the school. The SENCO must be a qualified teacher working at the school. A newly appointed SENCO must be a qualified teacher and where they have not previously been the SENCO at that or any other relevant school for a total period of more than twelve months, they must achieve the National Award in Special Educational Needs Coordination within 3 years of appointment.

19. Support and aspiration: The new SEN code of practice The key responsibilities of the SENCO may include: • Overseeing the day-to-day operation of the school’s SEN policy; • Coordinating provision for children with SEN; • Liaising with, advising and contributing to the in-service training of fellow teachers and other staff; • Liaising with the relevant designated teacher where a looked after pupil has SEN; • Advising a on graduated approach to providing Additional SEN Support; • Ensuring that the records of all children with SEN are kept up to date; • Liaising with parents of children with SEN; • Liaising with early years providers and secondary schools, educational psychologists, health, social care, and independent or voluntary bodies who may be providing SEN support and advice to a child and their family;

20. Support and aspiration: The new SEN code of practice • Being a key point of contact with external agencies, especially the LA and LA support services; • Liaising with potential next providers of education to ensure a young person and their parents are informed about options and a smooth transition is planned; • Collaborating with curriculum coordinators so that the learning for all children is given equal priority; • Ensuring with the head teacher and school governors that the school meets its responsibilities under the Equality Act (2010) with regard to reasonable adjustments and access arrangements. • The SENCO is responsible for ensuring that the school can track and record support plans and decisions for all the children with SEN in the school. SENCOs can be particularly effective when part of the leadership team.

21. Children and Families Bill • From the draft provisions, the Government has retained the same definition of SEN, the extension of entitlement to ‘young people’ over compulsory school age but under 25, and local authorities’ responsibility for all children with SEN. https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/Young%20Person's%20Guide%20to%20the%20Children%20and%20Families%20Bill.pdf

22. The other downloads