Referral forms, documents and guidance for RCBC Education Services

The high needs funding system supports provision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) from their early years to age 25, enabling both local authorities and institutions to meet their statutory duties under the Children and Families Act 2014.

High needs funding is also intended to support good quality AP (Alternative Provision) for pre-16 pupils who, because of suspension or expulsion, illness, or other reasons, cannot receive their education in mainstream or special schools. The high needs funding block provides local authorities with resources for place funding and top up funding for institutions, and funding for high needs services delivered directly by the local authority or under a separate funding agreement with institutions (including funding devolved to institutions), as permitted by regulations.

The DfE is moving towards a national funding formula to ensure that education provision for a high need’s pupil is funded in a comparable way whatever the form of institution they attend, and that funding is genuinely responsive to individual pupils’ and students’ needs. Any funding from the high needs block will follow the child.

Funding from the Education Funding Agency is broken down into three blocks:

• Early Years
• Schools – budget devolved to the school:
• Element 1 or “core education funding” which is also known as AWPU (Age weighted pupil unit)
• Element 2 or “additional support funding”. Element 2 should be paid from a school’s notional SEND budget. 

High Needs Block Element 3 or Top Up Funding – this will be retained by the local authority to support the needs of children and young people.

Mainstream Setting

Specialist Setting

Element 1

Core Education Funding

Mainstream per pupil funding

Base funding of £10,000 for SEN and £8,000 for Alternative Provision placements which is equivalent to the level up to which a mainstream provider would have contributed to the additional support provision of a high need’s pupils. Base funding is provided based on 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.

Element 3

Top Up Funding

“Top up” funding from the commissioner to meet the needs of each pupil or student placed in the institution.

There will be a small number of situations where a child or young person requires a higher level of support that cannot be met from within their Notional SEN budget. In those circumstances, a school could submit a request for top-up funding from the High Needs Block. Top-up funding is the funding required over and above the core funding an institution receives to enable a pupil or student with high needs to participate in education and learning. This is paid by the commissioning local authority and should reflect the costs of additional support to meet the individual pupil or student’s needs. Local authorities have the flexibility to provide high needs funding outside the statutory assessment process for all children and young people with high needs up to the age of 19. To access top up funding, the authority would require evidence of the graduated response as indicated in the Code of Practice. This should be clearly evidenced within a SEND Support Plan detailing the interventions and provision implemented to achieve agreed outcomes as well as evidence that outcomes have been monitored through the person-centred review process. 

From the introduction of the SEND reforms there is the expectation that Schools will contribute £6000 to support the additional needs of children and young people with SEND from the school budget- this should be clearly indicated on the costed provision map. 

High Needs Top Up Funding can be applied for via the Resource and Support Panel (non-statutory) or via the Multi-Agency Education, Health, and Care Panel (statutory). We use the RCBC SEND ranges to identify the complexity of need and to allocate funding appropriately. 

To make a referral for High Needs Top Funding at Resource and Support Panel, the following evidence is required:

• Completed Resource and Support Panel Referral Form
• Up to date costed provision maps and support timetables.
• SEN Support Plan with SMART outcomes (N.B. SEN Support Plans, timetables of support and costed provision maps must correspond).
• All relevant up to date reports from other agencies showing how recommendations have been implemented and reviewed (within 2 years).
• Clearly highlighted sections from the SEND Ranges document.

To assist schools in demonstrating how they have used the notional SEN budget the local authority has devised a standardised costed provision map from June 2019. The format and process for the use of the maps is explained in the remainder of this document. When requesting High Needs Top Up Funding, we request that a RCBC costed provision map is completed in all cases. This provides equity between the different funding formulas used for staffing costs. Schools can also use their own form of provision map to run alongside this. 

What can be included on a Costed Provision Map?

Please see below for guidance

Eligible Spend

Please note if the child is supported by LSA within a small group in class this must be divided by number in the group and should not be regarded as one to one support.

The following item/provision would be classed as eligible spend by a school to meet the educational needs of a child:

School costings should include provision which is “additional to” and “different from” what is available through Quality First Teaching. For example:

• Group work to address a specific and identified need, the cost of which should be divisible by the number of children in the group e.g., Lexia, Speech, and Language programmes.
• Individual interventions such as e.g., Numicon, Beat Dyslexia, Toe by Toe.
• Targeted interventions e.g., Getting Along, or modelling behaviour at playtimes. Any lunchtime interventions would be costed at Supervisory Assistant rate.
• If there is a second teacher in the classroom working with the child (additional teaching hours are capped at 5hrs).
• Specific equipment recommended by an appropriate professional e.g., Therapist, Advisory Inclusion Teacher for the child e.g., writing aids and specialist equipment (bought specifically for the child within the year).
• Any traded services funded by the school accessed by the child. This needs to be divisible by the number of children accessing the service.
• Any specific training recommended by an outside agency for the named child e.g., Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS). This will be judged on a case-by-case basis.
• If a learning mentor/counsellor was employed by the school and worked directly with the pupil.
• If a school has bought a Lexia licence this cost would be divided by number of pupils accessing the resource.
• Specialist equipment recommended by a member of staff who has a specialist qualification (e.g., in dyslexia). A report must be provided to support the recommendation.

Schools have a responsibility to consider provision of aids services for children with special educational needs and disability. There could be some circumstances where the purchase of an aid could be regarded as an eligible spend.

Non-eligible Spend.

• All activities relating to Quality First Teaching and the underpinning framework of the school would be considered as part of AWPU and therefore would not be regarded as eligible spend e.g., meeting parents / carers, outside agencies. Overheads attributable to other budgets within the institution or that relate to costs that the institution would have to meet even if it had no pupils or students with high needs (for example, the salary of the special educational needs coordinator (SENCO) required by all mainstream schools.
• Any time for SENCo duties is met through core education funding.
• Fixtures and fittings.
• Planned place funding in specialist provision.
• If you have bought in additional staff to reduce class sizes and create an additional teaching group, this is classified as quality first teaching.
• Meetings in relation to pupil needs e.g., reviews and Team Around the Family.
• Currently schools do not receive SEN funding for breakfast /after school clubs so this will also be non- eligible spend.
• Parent support advisors have specific roles to support families, and this cannot be costed as provision for a child.
• Support from a Transition Assistant would be considered as quality first practice and is non- eligible spend.
• the cost of educational and other assessments (for example, by educational psychologists) unless the local authority agrees in advance to pay for or contribute to these costs because they are required for its own assessment or review purposes.