Unable to get funding for 1 on 1 as he's not statutory school age?

[Triggles]

DS2's head mentioned today that they are attempting to get further funding for more hours for DS2 (which the SENco had already told me), but that they may not get it as DS2 is only 4 and not required to be in school yet.

Is this normal? This is actually the first I've heard that. Has anyone else heard this?

The headteacher did state that they would do whatever they had to do to get the funding, including kicking in some funding from the school itself if they absolutely had to regardless of their budget, so I can see they are doing everything they can. She's not suggesting for a minute that DS2 not go to school. She said she just wanted me to be aware of it, presumably because it means it may take longer to get the assistance in class that he needs.

If they are applying for interim/emergency funding (assume your DS2 doesn't have a statement) it is probably a funding "pot" issue. As your DS2 is still 4 then he will technically still come under Early Years.

It is true there is no legal requirement for a child to be in full-time education until the term after they are 5. But children are also entitled to 15hrs a week preschool education etc. So what it usually means is a 4 year old can be kept part-time at school (e.g. mornings only).

School do sound on the case and hopefully they will secure what they need too asap.

My son was in private nursery and there was a funding stream for children under 5 in early years with SEN. The nursery had to fill out a form and he was allocated 50 or 75% depending how many boxes he ticked and how delayed he was in each area. So 75% of his nursery time was 1:1. Then we applied for and got a statement which increased this to 100% so he got 15 hours.

However if he had been in a school nursery the Council would have said they delegated SEN budgets to schools and the school should pay for the 1:1 out of that. This funding was for private and voluntary nurseries who did not get a delegated grant.

Ring the SEN officer and ask them for info - get them to send the actual policies of the funding streams and if they say its up to the school ask how many hours the COuncil expect the school to put in. Here its 20 hours a week without a Statement.

Chances are the school has the money but it hasn't occurred to them to use it. From a schools point of view your child is on their roll same as any other child over 5 or not and the money they get is not ringfenced for over 5s that I am aware of.

So the school are not doing you a favour thats what they get the money for. If they don't play ball you might have to ask to see their budget etc and how they have spent delegated funds.

All schools should expect some children in nursery class to have SEN and allocate funds accordingly. However they could correctly limit it to 15 hours for pre schooler.

DS2 has full time funding and he's only 4.5. He does have a statement, though.

I'll speak to the SENco regarding this next week, at the IEP review meeting. He's in reception. Sorry, forgot to put that in there.