Special funding rather then statement?

[roadkillbunny]

Hi, I posted a couple of weeks back about my 4yo ds (will call him 'M'' rather then ds all the time) who has speech and language problems and social problems. He started reception in September and his needs have become very pronounced as for the first time he is interested in joining in socially and would like a friend. Things reached a peak when he was resorting to violence and hurting other children.
School are amazing and are really driving things forward to get M the help and support he needs. A peadiotristion referral has been made, school have stuck a rocket up his useless SaLT who are now making a formal assessment and getting scores for him. I have done the CAF with the school link worker and today the educational phycologist observed him in class and we had a meeting afterwards with her, class teacher and SENco. SaLT is finishing her assesment next week by visiting him at school. Week after next a TAC meeting has been arranged.
The drive has been towards statutory assessment and statement as it is felt all round he needs 1-1 for at least part of the day. But, in the meeting with ed phyc today SENco said that in a larger school a lot of the resorses would already be available but as we are a small school (with low pupil premium, they didn't say that but we all know we as a school have lost allot of budget this way!) we don't have the extra resorses (floating TAs and the like) so we need to get funding for M from the LEA. She said she needed to go back and talk with her LEA bod but it will most likely be that they apply for special funding for M that would be in place for a year and give a max of 15 hours support. I have not heard about this and don't really know the ins and outs of it and can't seem to find any info. She said that the process to get this funding is quicker and less buricratic then stat. Assessment and would enable us to get the support in for M much quicker but it is a one year only type thing that might be able to be extended to 2 years if required.
There is the hope that for M intensive early help should decrease the support he will need as he progresses through school so this makes this funding seem very appealing as we could be working on getting a statement for the rest of reception and beyond while all that time he would not be getting the level of support he needs (not that school won't do all they can its just without funding there is only so much).
M hasn't seen the peadiotristion yet but there is a feeling that a dx of HFA is likely although trying to set detanggle how much his speech and language issues are effecting his social development is difficult at the moment. School aren't hugely bothered about getting any kind of dx for M as it wouldn't really have any effect on the support as they are using things like social stories already.

Can anyone give me any info on this special funding and I would also like people opinion on if pushing for a statement now is better then having the 15 hours (school dont think he would get more then 15 hours on a statement) now and seeing where we are in a year.

Why can't he have the 15 hours quick special funding whilst you are going through statement process (min 6 months)?

OK, so first thing - Funding is not yours or M's issue. Dont allow meetings about the level of support that M needs to dissolve into funding discussions.

Sounds like the school are pushing to get a better understanding of his needs.
Until there is a formal change the statement process & the SEN cop is what you should follow to ensure your son recieves the level of support he needs in school.
You need to establish if the school have formally applied for stat assessment & if not apply for it yourself - It is actually better if the parent applies anyway.
Dont worry about timescales, the school should put in to place support in the interim & actually a statement does not automatically mean ££ in the budget for schools. Although all LEA's ahve to follow the statment process how they allocate SEN funding varies from area to area.
The reason that your son would be better off with a statement is that it is a lagally binding document that lays out exactly the level of support & services that your son will receive regardless of funding streams.

Good luck

"The drive has been towards statutory assessment and statement as it is felt all round he needs 1-1 for at least part of the day".

This is good

"But, in the meeting with ed phyc today SENco said that in a larger school a lot of the resorses would already be available but as we are a small school (with low pupil premium, they didn't say that but we all know we as a school have lost allot of budget this way!) we don't have the extra resorses (floating TAs and the like) so we need to get funding for M from the LEA. She said she needed to go back and talk with her LEA bod but it will most likely be that they apply for special funding for M that would be in place for a year and give a max of 15 hours support".

Not so good. Do not whatever you do get involved or bogged down with funding issues.

I would still apply for the statement yourself to the LEA asap and ignore any naysayers. LEAs still manage the funding for statements anyway but do not get bogged down in such details. Funding is not your concern, having your son's needs fully met at school is. The way forward for that is obtaining him a statement.

TAC meetings can ultimately be a lot of hot air. Do not get bogged down by that either.

IPSEA's website is good re the statementing process and there are model letters you can use. They also have a helpline number that can be called (v busy though so could take many attempts).

www.ipsea.org.uk

As far as I am aware there is IDACT ?? funding which is allocated to schools according to fsm, low attainment and size of school. School are expected to fund 15 hrs of 121 out of this, it can be topped up with an additional 10 from LEA.

Special funding I think is were a panel sit and funding is allocated to a specific child according to needs. Not 100% sure but think this is were a dx has been made (in our case, this is true)

ds 8 has ASD and gets 25 hours funded totally by LEA, this will change in April with the new funding malarkey.

DS got special funding whilst his statement was going through as he needed 1 to 1 at all times.however we still pushed for the statement as its legally binding otherwise the funding could of got pulled.

DS had special funding whilst statement was still being persued. School funded 15 hours and LA funded remainder. Not that the school used the funding for its designated purpose but he isnt there now thank goodness.