School funding.

[SallyBear]

Can anyone explain to me please, when a school applies for "Additional Funding" for a child with ASD, what exactly is Additional Funding and what is it used for? Thank you!!

I think it is local terminology, in that it has a different meaning in each LA.

In my old one, additional funding was the funding above the delegated funds which was specified in a statement, but Exceptional Needs Funding was funding awarded to the school by the cluster group (who also had delegated funding but imo pitched schools against each other to claiming it and it wasn't usually for 'high incident' conditions which ASD is.

Thanks. Interesting to learn the differences between LAs.

It's a friend's DS. He has ASD, the parents wanted a Stat Assess but the school weren't prepared to play ball, so the parents went ahead. Were turned down by the LA. Now two months later the school are moving the learning mentor into his class alongside the class TA, and have received Additional Funding. Curious.

Well I knew all about it because my LA were obsessed with talking about it rather than my child in any meeting I attended. Then I spent a couple of years reading all their online policy documents and a few FOI docs.

Now i come to think of it, I do remember a conversation that I had 18mos ago with my LA who stated that all schools would be receiving 20 hours of additional funding a week for children who are on SA+. This was reduced to 15 hours this year. I do wonder if its the same thing, though this seems to be Additional Funding for a specific child as opposed to paying for a TA to be utilised throughout school.

Ok. That sounds positive Polter. So maybe this is the same thing. Thanks!

Hi my son was on action plus and the senco applied for additional funding on a half termly basis for 1:1. My son has a statement now but they did the additional thingy quite a few times, though I was never sure if I believed then lol