IPSEA Briefing Page 1 of 5
School funding reform: SEN Funding
after April 2013
Introduction
With effect from 1st April 2013 the way in which provision to meet Special Educational
Needs (SEN) is funded in schools has changed. The new system is called “Placeplus”.
Our key message is that these are changes to the way in which an individual school
receives funds to make provision available for children or young people with SEN.
SEN law has not been amended. A Local Authority still remains legally responsible
for ensuring that the special educational provision specified in Part 3 of a Statement
of SEN is delivered.
Funding streams are different depending upon the type of school and whether or not
the placement is for pre or post 16.
Background Reading
Schools Funding Reform Arrangements for 2013 - 2014 (DfE)
School funding reform: Next steps towards a fairer system March 2012 (DfE)
Reform of high needs funding- illustrative diagrams (DfE) – See menu on the
right of linked page.
DfE FAQS October 2012
The Inter-Authority Recoupment (England) Regulations 2013
Note on some terms
LA means the Local Authority. The Local Authority is also sometimes referred
to as the “Commissioner” or the “Commissioning Local Authority” in its role as
the commissioner of services.
EFA means the Education Funding Agency. The Education Funding Agency is
the Department for Education’s delivery agency for funding and compliance.
Copyright © IPSEA 2013
Updated May 2013
IPSEA Briefing Page 2 of 5
School funding reform: SEN Funding after April 2013
1.
Maintained mainstream schools
The three elements of funding
SEN funding in maintained mainstream schools will consist of three elements:
(1) The AWPU – the age weighted pupil unit – this is the basic per pupil
funding which schools receive for every child whether or not they have
SEN;
(2) Additional support funding (ASF) – As currently, this is an identified
figure within the delegated budget which each school receives annually.
This is from a funding stream called the designated schools grant or
schools block. It is provided by LAs for mainstream schools and the EFA
for Academies and Free Schools. This element of funding is currently used
to fund the special educational provision for children on school action and
school action plus and a proportion of funding for children with statements;
(3) “Top up” (or “high needs”) funding for individual pupils. This funding
comes from the commissioning home LA, as and when required, and on
the basis of the child’s assessed needs. It is usually, although not
exclusively, used to fund support for children with a statement of SEN.
Funding from these three elements is not in principle any different from the way that
SEN support has been funded in the past. What is different is:
•
Where the funding comes from - whether it is the home LA or EFA;
•
An national assumption is now being made that AWPU is the equivalent of a
notional £4,000 per pupil;
•
The level of support an individual school is expected to provide from the
additional support element of its funding has now been nationally defined as
being a notional £6,000 in value.
Additional Support Funding
The expectation is that a mainstream school must provide an additional £6,000 of
support for each individual child with SEN before they can access top up funding.
This does not mean that this is the amount the school will actually have received.
The amount actually received is calculated by reference to a funding formula based
on various criteria. Under the new funding arrangements, there are two compulsory
criteria, namely the total number of pupils in a school and a social deprivation index.
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IPSEA Briefing Page 3 of 5
School funding reform: SEN Funding after April 2013
In theory under place-plus, the DfE would like to move to a system of delegation
which is more consistent across Las.
This is explained as follows by the DfE:
“From this funding, mainstream providers will be expected to contribute the
first £6,000 of the cost of additional educational support required by a high
needs pupil. By additional education support, we mean the support a pupil
requires above what would be funded by mainstream per-pupil funding.
To illustrate, if a school received AWPU of £4,500, the contribution a
mainstream setting would be expected to make would be £10,500 (AWPU +
£6,000). If the AWPU was £5,500, the contribution would be £11,500 (again,
AWPU + £6,000).”
This means from the point of view of the LAs, that they will not expect mainstream
schools who are educating a child for whom they are responsible to ask for further
funding for special educational provision until they can demonstrate that the cost of
provision exceeds the high needs threshold of £10,000 (or the AWPU plus £6,000 if
different).
However this financial threshold has not replaced the legal tests for carrying out
assessments of SEN or the issuing of a statement of SEN.
Accessing Top Up funding
For a school to access the appropriate level of top up funding from an LA, to support
a child/ young person’s needs, there are two key issues:
•
What are the child’s special educational needs and what special education
provision do the needs call for - i.e. if a child has a statement, Part 3 must
specify the provision;
•
How much can be funded from the school’s ASF. If the child has a statement
of SEN – therefore the LA has the legal duty to make that provision – then the
school will need to communicate with the LA clearly about what top up funding
is needed. If the child does not have a statement and the ASF is insufficient to
fund the provision, consideration should be given to making a request for
statutory assessment.
2.
Special Schools
For special schools, the position has changed fundamentally. Prior to April 2013,
maintained special schools had a number of pre-set places and they received full
funding up-front for each place, whether or not they were filled
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IPSEA Briefing Page 4 of 5
School funding reform: SEN Funding after April 2013
Other special schools (non-maintained schools and independent schools) were
funded per pupil on roll with each placement, according to their needs.
April
From 1st
2013 most special schools (but not all – see below) receive advance
base funding of £10,000 for each planned place based on expected admissions
places for the next Academic year. Top-up funding will then be provided, if
necessary, by home Local Authorities in respect of each pupil placed on the basis of
the assessed needs of and required provision for the individual pupil as reflected in
Parts 2 and 3 of their statement of SEN.
This regime applies to maintained special schools, academy special schools, and
non-maintained special schools but not to independent special schools for the time
being. This is intended to remove “potential perverse incentives” in the previous
system for LAs to prefer one type of provider over another. It is intended to reduce
arguments over special school placements.
3.
Alternative Provision
AP, which includes places in Pupil Referral Units, is funded similarly to special
schools, as above, but with base-funding per place of £8,000.
4.
Post-16
All base funding for post-16 students with high needs – in schools, colleges and other
providers – will comprise the programme funding that post-16 student places would
normally attract, according to the new national 16-19 formula, plus £6,000 for each
planned high needs place.
5.
Some known problems – already!
AWPU – The March 2013 DfE consultation about implementation says that “the
majority of primary Age Weighted Pupil Units (AWPUs) are in the range of £2,250 to
£3,250, although there are a few significant outliers of over £4,000”. So the DfE’s
initial £4,000 AWPU assumption seems to be based on secondary schools rather
than primary school figures and for many schools is not correct.
Additional Support Funding – We know, from letters copied to IPSEA from parents,
that some schools have not received anywhere near adequate funds to enable them
to fund £6000 of provision per annum per pupil with additional needs. Indeed some
have written to parents warning of an imminent reduction of provision.
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IPSEA Briefing Page 5 of 5
School funding reform: SEN Funding after April 2013
Special schools base funding – Providers may not receive base-funding for the
right number of pupils. This is likely to be a particular issue for specialist providers
which receive pupils from a wide range of LAs, with places being allocated before the
exact number of pupils they will eventually receive has been determined.
Other sources of funding e.g. the pupil premium – It is not clear how SEN funding
interacts with other sources. For example, would a child with SEN from a deprived
home be entitled to receive personal spending equivalent to £10,000 plus the value
of the personal premium.
Delegated SEN funds do not “follow the child” – Schools are free to spend their
SEN budget in the manner they consider most effective to meet the needs of
children. A clear “local offer” document by an LA might set out expectations for
provision in each local school. But this is unenforceable and there is little other
objective accountability for those spending decisions. It is to be expected, however,
that schools will spend the delegated SEN budget across all children with SEN, for
example on equipment or a specialist teacher who will benefit many. This may mean
that it will be difficult to map provision/spending onto particular pupils for the purpose
of showing that the high needs threshold of “AWPU + £6,000” has been reached.
Independent schools which are not non-maintained special schools are now in
a different position – Whilst the pre-funding of planned places in special nonmaintained schools, special maintained schools and special Academies may level the
playing field in relation to the pre-funded places, this does not apply to Independent
schools.
Local Authorities taking specification out of Statements
heard of a number of LAs that are telling SEN teams, schools
new funding arrangements mean that they need to take
statements as it is all about the money! In some cases
specification with reference to a “banding”.
Copyright © IPSEA 2013
– We have already
and parents that the
specification out of
they are replacing