Management Information Sheet
Norfolk High Needs SEND Funding update
EHCP Banding and SEN Support Outcomes and Feedback
(For Period 1st October 2018 – 31st March 2019)
Thank you for your engagement with the High Needs SEND Funding processes.
As you are aware the High Needs SEND Top-Up budget is £2.9 million and the LA must prioritise this budget to meet the needs/provision of children and young people with EHCP's and retain an amount for future applications.
EHCP Banding applications
The VS SEND received 1686 bandings for Children/Young People (CYP) with EHCP's from 308 academies/schools.
The breakdown of the banding received:
- Band 1 – 23%
- Band 2 – 35%
- Band 3 – 41% - this was a higher percentage than anticipated and equated to 692
CYP who require full-time support (including lunchtimes) in mainstream schools.
The allocations of funding for children and young people with EHCPs for the year are:
| Full year | 6 month allocation | |
|---|---|---|
| Band 1 | £674 | £337 |
| Band 2 | £1363 | £682 |
| Band 3 | £2611 | £1306 |
SEN Support High Needs Top-Up applications
The VS SEND received 325 SEN Support High Needs Top-Up applications from 266 academies and schools. The total amount requested amounted to over £5m.
72 applications were declined at the initial VS SEND triage. This equated to 22% of all applications.
253 were assessed and moderated on Monday 25th June 2018.
Moderation
Space at the moderation was limited which required the VS SEND to endeavour to ensure that there was a balance of representation from phases of education and from across the county. We apologise to those of you who were disappointed not to be invited to attend, we will continue to offer opportunities to engage with the process as we develop it over the next few months.
We were joined by 14 colleagues who represented a range of roles in a range of settings from across the county. Additionally, we were joined by internal colleagues from the High Needs SEND Service, the VSSS and the VS CiC. Working in pairs/threes the group worked extremely hard and assessed and moderated 253 applications. Each application was moderated twice.
Sample of feedback from moderators:
Application feedback:
- There is a need to judge the overlap between top-up funding and EHCP banding
- There was a lack of precision and clarity in many applications – more context needed from SENDCos to make informed decisions
- Applications should not include:
- Cost of SENCo
- Cost of Admin support etc…
- Membership costs
- CPD
- Cost of the wider Pastoral support
- SEN Notional was not always entered on the form by the school
- 1:1 – why are so many applications asking for 1:1?
- Need to break down costs per child
- Costings have included FSP work, PSAs and an apprentice – there is not enough detail or clarity to show how these pieces of work are required for the children the form is for
- Need clearer definition between TAs working with CYP with SEN/D and those that aren't
- Some schools have a large proportion of children on SEN Support – are they over-identifying?
- Simple, targeted applications were easier to agree where it was clear that the school had totalled the cost of provision, deducted £6K AND that they had reasonably allocated SEN Notional
Process feedback:
- Need for a smaller moderation group for moderation during the year – to increase consistency, there were a lot of opinions/views from colleagues in the room
- Moderation forms need to include a notes section so that additional information can be included in feedback
- Moderators weren't given sheet 1 to enable anonymization, however, this meant they did not know how Pupil Premium has been spent
- Process should be needs-led not school budget led
- Funding formula could be used (to make it consistent)
- Enable schools to attend a coaching session to see what to change/include/improve for next time
- Model applications would be beneficial to schools
- Re-design form to enable greater consistency in information presented
Moderation decisions:
156 applications deferred/declined (61.6% of 253) (48% of 325)
97 applications agreed to pay in part or full (38.3% of 253) (29.6% of 325)
If your application has been accepted and an allocation has been agreed at moderation, you will receive notification of your allocation via Perspective Lite by September 2018.
If your application has been deferred or declined you will have the opportunity to reapply in September and later in the autumn term. There will not be an appeals process.
Individual feedback regarding applications can be requested if you cannot identify with the reasons listed below. Please refer back to your original application before requesting additional information from VS SEND.
Reasons for deferred or declined applications:
At the Triage Stage there were two reasons for academies/schools not to proceed to the moderation stage:
- Inclusion of children and young people with EHCP's recorded on the EHCP Banding Form and duplicated on the application for SEN Support (meaning a request for double funding)
- Inaccurate/incomplete evidence of Section D – Whole School Notional Funding
At the Assessment and Moderation there were two main reasons for the application to be deferred or declined:
- Section D – Whole School Notional and Section E1 – Allocation of SEN Notional Per CYP breakdown
- Section E – the clarity, detail and child/young person specific needs breakdown
*A number of academies/schools included the cost/salary of their SENDCo. This is a statutory role and therefore should not be included in the SEN Notional spend. If this has been listed within spending, this will be the reason for the application being deferred or declined.
*The SEN Notional is not for general, overheads or fixed costs but should be child and/or young person specific. If overheads have been listed within spending, this will be the reason for the application being deferred or declined.
For further information on the SEN Notional please contact the Finance and Business Services Team. finance.support@educatorsolutions.org.uk
Further opportunities to apply for Top-Up funding
Due to the number of deferred and declined applications, we would like to offer schools and academies to re-apply for SEND High Needs Top-Up Funding in September
Autumn term Timeline 2018
| SEN Support Top-Up applications available | Monday 3rd September |
| Deadline for applications | Friday 14th September |
| Moderation week | w/b Monday 24th September |
| Feedback | w/b Monday 15th October |
| Deadline for applications | Friday 9th November |
| Moderation week | w/b Monday 19th November |
| Feedback | w/b Monday 10th December |