SEN Funding

[Laauren]

Hi, I'm an NQT on supply just interested in SEN and wanting to find out a bit more.

People often talk about 'unlocking funding' for children with SEN. What does this actually mean? Is it once a child has an EHCP there is additional funding that is provided to the school for that child? Should EHCPs outline how many hours support a child needs - if so who pays for this?
I'm aware of the £6000 from school's budgets, although again don't actually know a lot about this.

I've worked in schools where right from reception children who need 1:1 support have it - to the point where there where 5 adults in a class including class teacher. The school I'm currently in have multiple undiagnosed children with potential SEN/learning difficulties, none have 1:1 TA support. It's often the general class TA that ends up having to work 1:1 with pupils meaning that they can't be used to help with group work or other class activities. How is it so different between schools?
I can't necessarily change things at the school I'm currently at but I am interested in learning more about funding for SEN if anyone can share any insight?

There is a notional funding of £6000 included for,pupils with SEN in the main budget, that does not mean that each child is worth £6000! The school is allocated an amount, based on key factors such as pupil numbers, deprivation indices, FSM eligibility etc, as part of the block funding. It does not matter how many children in the school with ACTUAL SEN needs there are, funding doesn't increase if a child with SEN joins the school or fall if one leaves. The money is not ring fenced, it is just part of the whole school budget.
Then there is EHCP funding. Just quite how this works can vary between local authorities. In MY LA, a school or a parent can apply for an EHCP for a child with severe additional needs. Legislation doesn't quite match up to reality here. In theory, any child with needs can be allocated an EHCP, in practice some local authorities ( and indeed schools) apply much more restrictive criteria. Again, in my authority, any EHCPs granted are banded into categories, moderate, severe,significant etc and each one comes with an amount of money allocated and hours covered. So a child might be allocated 17, 21, 25 etc hours ( I also have some with 35 hours allocation but that's unusual,). But the money allocated does not match the hours specified so the school has to fund the difference. For example, in my authority, severe would be allocated 25 hours funding and given just under £7800 per annum additional Higher Needs funding. Obviously, this will not pay for 25 hours of TA time! So schools are the expected to utilise the £6000 of notional funding they "have". Even this won't pay for 25 hours ( a basic 1:1 TA with on-costs is around £14.43 per hour) so the school has to take a further amount out of the main budget to balance the costs. Thus every EHCP granted costs the school money. Which is why some schools are more reluctant than others to apply for an EHCP.

Thank you, that makes a lot more sense!