Introduction of change to the recording of resources in EHC Plans from September 2016

What is being changed?

From September 2016, all EHC Plans will contain a section entitled Resources to Support Learning’ after sections E and F, which will replace the section entitled ‘Teaching Assistant’. A copy of the template for this paragraph is attached.

This section will describe all of the resources available to a child or young person to work towards the outcomes of their EHC Plan and make the provision specified as necessary to help them make progress.

The allocation of resources will be described as an appropriate Banding Level of support within the five levels available with an identified and specific cash amount to support the school in providing for the child or young person.

Why is it being changed?

For many years Derbyshire has recorded the allocation of additional resources to schools to support child or young persons with Special Educational Needs (SEN) in the child or young person’s Statement of SEN, under the section ‘Teaching Assistant’. In order to access additional support from a Teaching Assistant (TA) it has been necessary for a child or young person to undergo a lengthy statutory assessment which has then resulted in a Statement.

It has always been open to schools to use these resources in any way they felt appropriate to meet a child or young person’s needs and the use of TA hours was a convenient measure of the level of resource that would be allocated. The support could be delivered in groups or individually.

Overtime it has often become the case that the resource allocation of TA hours has been interpreted as meaning individual support for that particular child or young person, leading to confusion and disagreement between schools and parents, schools and the Local Authority and parents and the Local Authority.

This has also distracted attention away from the principle of making individualised and appropriate interventions for a child or young person’s specific needs. National surveys, such as the work of the Sutton Trust,have demonstrated that individual support for child or young persons is often not the most effective way to promote a child or young person’s learning, development or independence. In addition, it is important that where different or additional resources are being used to support a child or young person, teachers and parents can see and measure the desired impact on progress and ensure the child or young person’s inclusion in the classroom and wider school environment.

Many schools have therefore spent the resources described as ‘TA hours’ more creatively with different interventions and focussed support to concentrate on skill development and generalising these independently in the classroom and wider school setting, using the resources to deliver the specific programmes necessary to make the provision described in the child’s statement rather thanthinking simply in terms of generic ‘adult support’.

In April 2013, the Government introduced a new funding system that meant that schools are required to provide the first £6,000 of additional support that a child might need from their own devolved budget. It is open to a school to deliver this £6,000 of support however they feel necessary to meet the child’s needs.

In April 2015 Derbyshire Local Authority introduced the ‘Graduated Response to Individual Child or young person’ (GRIP). This process enables schools to ask for additional resources over the £6,000 already available to them to support a child’s learning and development without the need for a statutory assessment and a statement or EHC Plan. This means support can be made available much more quickly to schools than through requesting an EHC Needs Assessment and having an EHC Plan.

The request for GRIP funding is based on schools providing a costed ‘provision map’ of the interventions currently being made to support child or young persons,using the already available £6,000. If the school are of the view that further interventions are required to help the child make progress they can apply to the Local Authority for GRIP funding.

A GRIP referral requires the school to create outcomes for the child and describe what new and additional interventions the school think will help the child continue or make better progress in their learning, measured against those outcomes for the learning and development.

GRIP allocations are made in cash amounts not TA hours, to be consistent with the expectations on how schools use their £6,000 delegated resources.

The Local Authority has therefore decided that from September 2016, all EHC Plans will have the additional resources allocated in a child or young person’s EHC Plan as a cash amount not TA hours, so that level of resources allocated through the funding scheme for schools is consistent with the graduated response described in the SEN Code of Practice, whatever level of support the child requires.

It will give schools professional freedom to make the provision specified in the child’s EHC Plan in the way they think most effective for the child’s needs and to develop creative and personalised ways of working with parents and other involved professionals that focus on measuring progress and meeting the agreed outcomes for each individual child or young person.

Will this change result in less money being allocated to school?

The changes will not alter the amount of support available to schools. The Local Authority’s Schools’ Finance Team has done extensive modelling of the changes to ensure that over the next ten years the amount of cash spent on supporting child or young persons in mainstream schools remains the same as it is under the present scheme for allocating additional resources through TA hours. The design and setting of the new banding levels means that across Derbyshire the current spread and balance of resources allocated will be maintained as it is now.

The Finance Team will be monitoring the new developments carefully to ensure that the level of spend remains proportionate with current and past expenditure.

The Local Authority will use Funding Level Detail Sheets together with a Tariff Level Sheet which has been updated to be consistent with the four areas of need described by the 2014 SEN Code of Practice, and to more closely match outcomes and specific interventions with identified needs. This will help to ensure that the appropriate provision is available, regardless of the nature of the special educational need or disability that is creating a barrier to learning for that individual child or young person.

What if a child has a statement with TA hours already described?

Over the next two and a half years the Local Authority must convert all remaining Statements of SEN to Education Health and Care (EHC) Plans. As the conversions proceed, all statements which are updated to EHC Plans will have a Band Level allocated and the appropriate cash amount allocated. The cash amount allocated will be the same as previously allocated through the ‘TA hours’ model so no school will receive less funding for a child or young personwith an EHC Plan than they received before through the child’s statement, unless there is a significant and evidenced decrease in the level of need. If appropriate for a child or young person where there is a significant and evidenced increase in need, the allocation to school will be moved to an appropriate higher Band Level and the cash allocation increased accordingly.

Since September 2014, approximately 1000 EHC Plans have been issued in Derbyshire under the existing ‘Teaching Assistant' model. These EHC Plans will be updated to the appropriate Banding Level and cash allocation when they are next amended through the normal statutory processes.

Steve Parfitt

SEND Commissioning Manager

September 2016

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