SEN Reg

[Atchiclees]

Hi, can anyone help me understand what happens to budgeted hours once a child has been put on the SEN Reg. I have heard that the school has to provide the first 20? Hours of teaching for that child, but I thought that was for a child with an EHCP?
One school is reluctant to add children on to the SEN Reg because of the cost of hours and prefers to keep them on a watch list, whereas I would feel the SEN Reg is a better way of monitoring progress over time and shows evidence for Ofsted.
I may be muddled over what the school meant by being reluctant due to cost, and I’d like some other opinions or pointing in the right direction for the info before I go back and question. Can anyone help me understand why it might be better to keep children off the register? I’m talking about non EHCP pupils, and cases like KS1 child with dyslexic tendencies so may need additional help. Or a child with suspected ASD but the parents are reluctant to “get them labelled”. Thanks.

I’m not sure what you mean by budgeted hours. Pupils aren’t entitled to a TA just because they’re on the SEN register.

Are you a senco/teacher/parent?

The idea is that schools have a ‘Notional’ (invisible) budget for SEN. This is not ring-fenced though and is based on a particular formula rather than how many children there actually are on the SEN register at any one time.

Schools ‘should’ have the option to spend up to £6000 on children on the SEN register but, in reality, because this money is not ring-fenced and schools are in such severe funding situations financially, this doesn’t always happen.

This would normally be in the form of interventions and additional provision/resources for the child and would rarely result in just providing a 1:1 TA for hours each a week as this is generally considered poor practice (look at EEF research for more detail) and of little long-term benefit to the child and developing their independence.

Children should be added onto the SEN register if/when they are receiving provision at school that is ‘additional to or different from’ their peers. Sadly with budgets being as they currently are, many schools do not have any TAs or money to fund interventions, so they don’t actually happen!

What would you like to see happening in the school you are taking about?

Hi, thanks for the replies. I’m a Governor. New to SEND link Governor role and in a new (to me) school. I’m not getting anywhere with the explanation from the HT and wanted to delve further. Sorry if the question wasn’t clear.

Question wasn’t about TA support, but rather what might be the financial (if any) implications of putting a child on the Sen reg. Eg “Sam” is child who has suspected dyslexia and needs additional support/interventions.

By adding Sam to the Sen reg, does the school need to prove they have spent money on the child? Interventions do happen and budgets are really tight. This school is not adding the children like “Sam” to the Sen reg because they think they have to have an audit trail of the money spent on interventions. I can’t find it written anywhere that they do.

I would like to see children like Sam on the Sen reg so that governors can monitor true data on how many children need additional support, how it is delivered, and how the school is closing any attainment gaps. I can’t do this if there are hidden pupils who are getting some support but being kept off the register. Hope I have explained myself. Although I have a DC with Sen, I am new to being a send link Governor and am trying to work out why they wouldn’t add children in the example.

What percentage of children do they already have on the SEN register?

Is the head the named senco?

Was anything to do with SEN targeted in their school development plan?

3% on Sen reg seems very low to me.

HT is Senco.

SDP was set up before I came on board so nothing specific about this area I want to look at, I am working my way through monitoring the rest on the SDP.

I was going to say, like a pp, children receiving support that is 'additional to or different from' others - this is in the SEND Code of Practice. There is no requirement to spend up to £6000 on children on the register, that relates to bidding for additional funding for a child when a school has to prove they are already providing support to that amount and will only be for the most needy children. 3% is well below national average. There are implications for how SATs data is reported as SEND results are scrutinised, but generally a Head would prefer more children on the register, not fewer for this as individual results then have less of an impact.

Thank you. That makes sense and I think I am on the right track with looking into it.