Schools are expected to fund the first £6,000 of all special educational provision (SEP) for their pupils with SEN from a 'notional budget' allocated to them by local authorities. That figure has not increased in line with inflation. For each child whose SEN cannot be ordinarily met by the school's SEP funded by that £6,000, schools then have to apply for, but may not necessarily be granted*, for that child to be needs assessed for an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP). EHCPs which will specify any additional SEP to meet pupils' SEN needs that cannot ordinarily be provided by the school out of that budget. EHCPs should come with enough 'top up' funding, but in practice most do not, and schools often have to 'apply for' additional funding (and this may not be granted).

Meanwhile, even though LAs' own pots of SEN funding, from which they are to fund both the notional budgets for schools and top-up funding, have increased, with pupil numbers having also increased there has been a per-pupil decrease of LAs' high-needs funding.

So LAs are having to do more with less (refusing needs assessments for more children and reducing the SEP identified as being needed being symptoms of this); and schools are having to do more with less (many children who need them are not granted EHCPs or the SEP that they need or the funding to secure that SEP - some schools draw on their non-SEN budgets to cover the actual costs of SEP necessary to support children with SEN, others are simply unable to do so).

The upshot? Children with SEN - some of the most vulnerable members of our society - are not receiving the SEP that will support them as highlighted in this Tes article: TA support for SEND non-existent.

The result: pupils unable to cope (greater numbers out of school); schools and their staff unable to cope (teachers leaving the profession, TA positions unfilled); and an increasing need for mental health support.

 

*It’s worth noting that 96% of LA refusals of needs assessments that were appealed at Tribunal were overturned.


Elizabeth Fortin works nationally and is based at Stone King’s Bath office. Stone King specialises in the sectors of Business & Social Enterprise, Charity, Education, Faith and Private Client and also has offices in Birmingham, Cambridge, Leeds, London and Manchester.