Funding of Special Educational Needs

Funding of Special and Additional Educational Needs – Essex Schools 2011/2012

Essex County Council

Schools Children and Families Service

SEN Provision Development

Commissioning and Business Design

Funding of Special Educational Needs 2011/2012

Aug2011 Z:\SEN Provision Development\Mainstream Schools

ContentsPage

Index 2

1. Mainstream Primary Schools

a) Pupils with and without statements of special educational need 3-6

2. Mainstream Secondary Schools 7-8

a) Pupils with and without statements of special educational need

3. The Pupil Premium 9

4. Enhanced Provision 9-10

5. Special Schools 11-15

6. Special Equipment Provision 15-17

1. Mainstream Primary Schools

a) Notional SEN Fund

The Notional SEN Fund is the sum of money that the Authority expects the school to make available as a minimum contribution to support pupils with special and additional educational needs. The notional SEN fund is made up of three component parts;

i) Funds within the Key Stage funding

ii) Additional Educational Needs funding

iii) Individual funding for pupils with statements banded either complex or severe.

The Pupil Premium based on FreeSchool Meals Eligiblity could equally be considered as part of the notional SEN Fund although in 2011-12Essex CC Finance are not delegating it to schools as part of the notional SEN Fund. Schools must be able to account for how they have used the resources delegated via the pupil premium so including it within the notional SEN fund is one way of ensuring the expenditure is transparent as schools have a statutory responsiblity for accounting for how they have used the resources delegated to them for SEN as well.

i) Funds within Key Stage Funding

Schools receive a significant element of their funding for special and additional educational needs through Key Stage Funding (the sum of money for every pupil on roll as at JanuaryPupilLevelAnnualSchool Census (PLASC)) which includes an element for special and additional educational needs.This element has been quantified as 3% of the key stage funding on the Section 251 statement (which sets out the total budget for the school). This 3% is to support pupils on School Action (ESA) and School Action Plus (ESA+) and provide a base level of support for pupils with statements of SEN.

An element of the school’s general pupil-driven funding has always been considered to be for SEN. The remaining 97% of the Key Stage Funding from the school’s main budget in the case of a primary school in all mainstream schools should be used to fund: the cost of a suitably qualifiedSpecial Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO)or Assistant SENCO(unless providing direct support to a pupil); the administrative costs associated with SEN; the cost of effectively differentiating the curriculum, including smaller class sizes for some subjects and/or pupils; andWave 2 interventions.

ii) Additional Educational Needs

With effect from April 2008 Essex LA introduced a single formula factor to fund pupils with Additional Educational Needs. The new Additional Needs formula element replaced the following previous formula elements;

•Statements at Bands A & B

•Existing AEN Factor

•Personalised Learning

•SEN Non-Statemented

•Social Deprivation

These resources are delegated to schools through the Section 251 statement. They form part of the overall school formula budget and the Governing Body can determine how those resources are allocated. These resources are intended tomeet the needs of pupils with the greatest special and additional educational needs and in Essex can be related to those pupils on ESA and ESA+ and also gifted and talented pupils. These funds should provide something ‘additional to and different from’ the support provided to pupils with universal needs.

These funds should be used to make a similar base level of support for pupils with statements of SEN.

The expected hours for a pupil on ESA or ESA+ or the school’s contribution towards a pupil with a statement will depend on the number of pupils receiving additional support and the school’s SEN delegated budget.As a general rule the hours can be allocated as1 hour of individual Learning Assistant (LSA) support or equivalent per week to a pupil on ESA and1.5 to 5 hours for pupils who are on ESA+.

Should a pupil be put forward for Statutory Assessment then the expectation would be that the pupil would already be receiving 5 hours of individual support per week, but this depends on the pupil’s need and the type of support required.However, no additional resources will be allocated for pupils with statements for Additional Needs, as funding for these pupils was subsumed into the Additional Needs Formula in 2008.This means that additional resources will not be allocated over and above the formula allocation unless a pupil is banded either complex or severe.

There is a popular misconception amongst schools that pupils at school action plus must receive a specific level of support, the reason this guidance recommends a range from 1.5 to 5 hours of individual learning support assistant time or equivalent is due to the fact that in some cases the schools notional SEN fund will not be sufficient to give all pupils on school action plus the maximum allocation of 5 hours per week.

It will be important for schools to differentiate support to pupils with high incidence needs as the SEN green paper implies that school action, action plus and additional needs will be merged into a single pre statement/single individual plan level.

Theadditional needs formulaappears under the Targeted Allowances heading on the Section 251 statement. Atotal of£18.45mhas been distributed to primary schools in 2011/12using the following factors:

Weighted Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI)50%

Prior Attainment (Foundation Stage and Key Stage 150%

Income Deprivation

The national IDACI tables for December 2010 have been used to map pupils (as recorded on the autumn 2010 school census) to their Lower Super Output Area (LSOA) using their individual home postcodes. An average IDACI score is calculated for each school reflecting overall social deprivation of pupils attending the school and applied to the January 2011 pupil numbers.

IDACI score of, for example 0.24, means that 24% of children aged less than 16 in that SOA are living in families that are income deprived.

The LSOAs are ranked in deciles and funding is targeted to the pupils from most socially disadvantaged areas by weighting the deciles as follows:

Decile / 1st most disadvantaged / 2nd / 3rd / 4th / 5th / 6th to 10th
Weighting / 1.5 / 1.0 / 1.0 / 0.5 / 0.5 / 0

Prior Attainment

The prior attainment funding is distributed by calculating an average low attainment score for each school and applying it to January 2011 pupil number. The data used is:

Key Stage 1 pupils: Foundation stage profile scores: the average percentage of pupils not achieving an average of 6 or more points in Communication, Language and Literacy and Mathematical Development (results for latest 3 years);
Key Stage 2 pupils: Key Stage 1 SATS: average percentage of pupils scoring less than level 2 in Mathematics and English (results for latest 4 years);

There will be no adjustment made to the budget for pupils with additional needs starting or leaving the school during the year – this includes pupils with statements banded Additional Needs.

b) Pupils with statements of special educational need

From April 2008 not all primary aged pupils with statements of SEN were funded individually by the LA. Pupils with statements for Additional Needs were expected to have their needs met from within the resources

delegated via the Additional Needs formula. Support from the LA for pupils with statements can take the form of a separate monetary allocation, through direct teaching support or monitoring from the LA’s Specialist Teaching Team. The monetary allocation normally specifies the employment of teacher or LSAtime and is in the form of specific hours of support per week.

The 1996 Education Act is clear that LAs are responsible for funding the provision in a statement over and above what is available in schools. In assessing the funding for a pupil it is assumed that schools will be fully differentiating the curriculum for that pupil, and contributing a base level of support equivalent to the level of support they would have put in at the highlest level of pupil on ESA+.

As previously mentioned, the expected hours for a pupil on ESA or ESA+ or the school’s contribution towards a pupil with a statement will depend on the number of pupils receiving additional support and the school’s SEN delegated budget.

Where a pupil has a statement of SEN it would be anticipated that the first 5 hours of support time would be provided through the delegated funding.

Allocations to schools will therefore assume the school will contribute from their Notional SEN Fund an amount equivalent to 5 hours ofLSAsupport.

As with pupils on ESA and ESA+, the school is expected to meet administrative and liaison costs e.g. undertaking the review arrangements and liaising with parents and other agencies.

The monetary allocations are based on standard assumptions for the cost of a teacher or LSA and not actualcost. No adjustments are made if the actual cost is different. The rates of reimbursement arebased on point 13 of the LGPS plus 8% on-costs for LSAs for all primary and secondary pupils with statements banded either complex or severe.

All pupils with statements of SEN regardless of the number of hours of LSA time are delegated within the Section 251 statement. The funding for pupils with statements banded additional needs are delegated but are formula funded via the additional needs formula, therefore it remains important to impress upon schools the fact that they do receive specific resources for these individual pupils. Pupils with statements banded complex or severe are funded individually and identified on a sheet accompanying the Section 251 budget statement. The allocation quoted in the Section 251 statement is for the whole financial year except for pupils in years’ 2 in infant schools and year 6 in primary and junior schools, which have been allocated summer term only, as they are expected to change schools in September.

There will be no adjustment made to the budget for pupils with additional needs starting or leaving the school during the year – this includes pupils with statements banded additional needs.

The amounts allocated to Schools in 2011/2012 for one hour of support for 38 weeks are:

TeacherLSA

Ordinary£1,458£394

FringeAllowance£1,506£408

Inner Allowance£1,506£414

Fringe Allowance relates to the districts of Basildon, Brentwood and Harlow. Inner Allowance relates to the Epping Forest district.

Therefore a child allocated 20 hours of support in Basildon would receive 20 * £408 = £8,160

Pupils without statements of SEN funded individually (Primary and Secondary)

Some pupils without statements of SEN attract individual SEN funding. These are often referred to as Band (O)ther pupils and fall into three main categories:

pupils whose medical needs are funded without the need for a statement

pre-school pupils or any pupil allocated interim funding whilst a statutory assessment is being undertaken
pupils from Other Local Authorities (OLA)

Schools receive allocations for Band (O)ther pupils in three instalments (one per term). Payments will be made in April, September and January.

Banding System

Essex operates a banding system in Primary Schools as follows:

Additional Needs / Less than or equal to / 12.5 hrs individual LSA Support
Complex Needs / Greater than / 12.5 and less than or equal to22 hrs individual LSA Support
Severe Needs / Greater than or equal to / 22.5 individual LSA Support

For additional needs pupils all funding will be from the schools delegated resources butfor pupils with Complex or Severe needs the first 5 hours only will come from the schools delegated budget and the remainder from individual LA funding either via the Section 251 statement under the heading SEN Statements Complex and Severe Needs or via separate allocation if the pupils comes on roll during the year.

Example of allocations within each band

Learning Assistant Hours / Learning Assistant Hours / SENCO Hours / SENCO Hours / HLTA Hours
Individual / Group of 3 / Individual / Group of 3 / Individual
Additional Needs / 5 / 15 / 1.25 / 3.75 / 4
Complex Needs / 15 / 45 / 3.75 / 11.25 / 12
Severe Needs / 25 / 75 / 6.25 / 18.75 / 20

The levels of support shown above are separate. Under Complex Needs 3.75 hours of individual teaching from the SENCO OR 11.25 hours of teacher support in a group of 3 OR 15 hours of individual LSA time could be provided.

In broad terms, 1 hour of SENCO (teacher) time equates to 4 hours of LSA time

1 hour of SEN Teacher time equates to 3 hoursof LSA time

and 1 hour of Higher Level Teaching Assistant is 1.25 LSA time.

Academies Funding

There is no difference in the way mainstream academies are funded for pupils with statements banded Complex and Severe. The funds are retained by the Local Authority and allocated to schools in accordance with individual pupil’s statement of SEN.

2. Mainstream Secondary Schools

The concept of the Notional SEN Fund applies equally to Secondary Schools as to Primary Schools. The new formula for funding schools is broadly similar for Primary and for Secondary schools

a) Pupils without statements of special educational need

i) Funds within Key Stage Funding

The principles are the same for secondary schools except to compensate for their larger base budget secondary schools are only expected to spend a minimum of 2% of their key stage funding on pupils with AEN/SEN i.e. those on ESA or ESA+ and a base level of support for pupils with statements.

iia) Additional Educational Needs

The principles and the methodology are the same for secondary schools as for primary with the following exceptions.

A total of £18.81m was allocated to secondary schools for AEN in 2011/12.

The prior attainment element of the AEN formula for Key Stages 3 and 4 was calculated is as follows:

Key Stage 2 SATs: average percentage of pupils not reaching level 4 in English (results for latest 5 years).

Both primary and secondary schools should be encouraged to ‘pool’ the Key Stage Funding percentage and additional needs funding to provide effective support for SEN pupils without statements and the first 5 hours of support for pupils with a statement.

iib) Practical Learning Options for KS4

The LA also allocated £2.67m for Practical Learning Options at KS4. There is a requirement for the LA to be transparent about how these funds are distributed to schools. The DCSF guidance at the time statedthat the purpose of this funding is ‘to increase practical learning opportunities for 14-16 year olds’.

The information provided by the DCSF(now the DfE) to LAs states that ‘This funding is not ring fenced but it is our intention that it should enable secondary schools to secure a broader range of practical and specialist provision at Key Stage 4. It is intended to cover the additional core costs of delivery including teaching, curriculum planning, resources and equipment and relevant fees. It will enable schools to purchase provision which they cannot themselves directly provide from other schools, colleges or private providers in the area.’

These funds have been distributed via a formula to reflect these priorities as follows:

Key Stage 3 Attainment data in English and Maths80%

Pupil numbers 20%

All schools will receive a share of the funding as part of the formula factor is driven by pupil numbers. However the formula favours schools with a high incidence of low attainment.

There is no requirement for schools to earmark these funds. It is anticipated however that a percentage of these funds will be spent on pupils on ESA and ESA+.

b) Pupils with statements of Special Educational Need

Allocations to schools will therefore assume the school will contribute from their non-statemented funding an amount equivalent to 5 hours of LSA time.

As with pupils on ESA and ESA+ the school is expected to meet administrative and liaison costs e.g. undertaking the review arrangements and liaising with parents and other agencies.

The new banding system is now applied to both primary and secondary schools in the same way:

The allocation quoted in the Section 251 statement is for the whole financial year except for pupils in Years 11 and 13, who have been allocated summer term only, as they are expected to leave then. The allocations are based on known pupils as at around PLASC date in January 2011. Schools will receive separate additional allocations during the year from the delegated budget for new pupils entering the school who meet the criteria for bands severe or complex, including thenew year 7 in September 2011and budgets will be adjusted for changes to existing provision (including pupils moving from additional needs to a higher band).There will be no adjustment made to the budget for pupils with additional needs starting or leaving the school during the year – this includes pupils with statements banded additional needs. An estimate of these new pupils with statements banded complex or severe has been transferred to the school’s delegated budget. It is important to note that all allocations relating to statemented pupils in Secondary schools are ‘delegated’ and SENCAN does not hold a SEN teaching or LSA budget, as such, any more. As these sums are now delegated,local bank account schools will receive them as part of their monthly cash sum and non local bank account schools will receive them at the beginning of the financial year.