Clarification of the Funding Arrangements for Children with SEN in Mainstream Schools

A number of primary and secondary headteachers have contacted me over the last few days with concerns about some aspects of the SEN funding set out in the recent budget information we sent to you at the end of February. I am arranging meetings with headteacher representatives to further discuss the points raised and ensure there is the best possible understanding of the issues.

The need to look at the funding mechanism arose from an increase of 33% (from 937 to 1248) in the number of children requiring Pupil Specific Allocations coupled with only a finite amount of funding available. The new school funding arrangements, including the impact of the Minimum Funding Guarantee, has led to much less flexibility to redirect funding from other areas into centrally held allocations.

The Schools Forum and its SEN Funding Sub-Group, together comprising headteachers, governors, SENCos and representatives from Parent Partnership, Aspergers Norfolk and the Dyslexia Association with support from senior finance and SEN officers, explored ways of addressing the issues over several meetings.

However, given that there is no other funding mechanism by which to supplement the Pupil Specific funding, the Schools Forum reluctantly agreed that the following adjustments should be made. These decisions were made in the light of the projected overspend on Pupil Specific Funding in 2005/06 which, unless changes were made, would have resulted in over £2 million additional Pupil Specific funding being required in 2006/07.

The adjustments include three technical changes to the way Pupil Specific funding is calculated. You will recall that the current arrangements for School Specific funding were introduced in April 2005 and, following this, some significant anomalies have been identified and the changes below have been implemented to address these. The three changes are:

1. Ensuring that support relating to lunchtime supervision is funded at Midday Supervisory Assistant rates not Teaching Assistant rates



2. Teaching Assistants being funded at the same rate in primary and high schools



3. For the last few months funding given to meet the requirements of new statements takes into account that the first 5 hours of support in primary schools and the first 10 hours in secondary schools are already funded through the School Specific allocation. This will apply to all Pupil Specific allocations from April 2006

Despite the cuts this has meant to some individual schools' SEN funding in 2006/07, significant increases have been made in the overall funding for SEN in 2006/07, including an additional £1m for Pupil Specific allocations. This followed an increase in 2005/06 of £1 million for School Specific Funding and £750k in Pupil Specific funding.

The enclosed accompanying information provides an explanation of recently agreed changes and guidance regarding the scheme for funding of SEN in mainstream schools. The members of the Schools Forum agreed at their meeting on 24th January that this guidance should be provided to schools alongside the budget information. I am aware that a brief description of these changes was included in the information sent to schools at the end of February, however, I would like to apologise that the full guidance has not been issued until today.

While this area of funding is difficult to understand fully, I believe that this information does provide sufficient clarity and will assist you in understanding further the budget allocations for the year ahead. I am also aware that there is further information planned for issue towards the end of March on other SEN issues. This will assist in a full understanding of the relationship between funding for SEN within mainstream schools and the associated interventions at School Action, School Action Plus and via Statements of Special Educational Need.

I would, however, like to apologise that this detailed guidance information was not available at the time that the budget sheets were sent to schools a week ago. I will ensure that in future every effort is made to provide schools with information in a much more co-ordinated way, despite the various time constraints that exist.

PFS Guidance


Lisa Christensen - Director of Children's Services