High Needs Funding in mainstream schools

In April 2015 Kent introduced a new system for funding high needs pupils in mainstream schools to comply with DfE regulations. As the arrangements remain relatively new, this briefing provides an overview of how mainstream high needs funding is allocated to schools.

Patrick Leeson will be providing some feedback on how Kent’s new system is operating at the March Headteacher Briefings and an earlier e-bulletin about the process remains available on KELSI:

High Needs Pupil (HNP)

The definition of a High Needs Pupil (HNP) in a mainstream school is a pupil that has additional SEN need costing £6,000 or more.

How to apply for high needs funding in a mainstream school

The pupil does not need to have an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP) to access the funding, but Pupils in a Specialist Resource Provision (SRP) in a mainstream school are not funded as part of this process. School submit an application via the SEN portal.

When an application is approved, the Schools’ Budget team are notified. All approved top up funding is then passed to the school through the schools advance system on a monthly basis. Schools should record all of their HNPs on this tab and then reconcile the amounts to the schools advances system on a monthly basis. Included within the budget template suite provided to schools is a tab titled “High Needs Funding Mainstream”.

Place Plus

The Education Funding Agency (EFA) uses an approach known as Place Plus to pass funding to different institutions to meet the cost of High Needs pupils regardless of the type of placement. To understand how Place Plus is applied it is important to note that in the first instance the cost of SEN support for the pupil is identified.

Knowing what notional SEN funding consists of is key to understanding the mechanics of mainstream high needs funding. A schools formula budget is broken down into a number of factors, with each factor being used to target funding at the different needs of the pupils within the school. Kent’s notional SEN proportion of the budget consists of the following  factors: IDACI, Look after Children, English as an Additional Language, Low Cost High Incidence SEN and an element of the lump sum (Primary £6,235, Secondary £5,580). This is funding targeted through the Kent’s local formula for the additional needs of pupils in the school, over and above the basic needs of all pupils.

How this is this applied in practice is best explained using an example – A primary school has an annual notional SEN budget of £10,000 and has one high need pupil whose additional needs cost £9,000 per annum.

Place Plus is broken down into three elements,

• Element 1 (E1) – Core Education Funding
• Element 2 (E2) – Additional Support
• Element 3 (E3) – Top Up Funding.

E1 = Primary school basic entitlement £2,740 (Factor 1 – Age Weighted Pupil Unit of funding)

E2 = £6,000 (this is always set at this amount)

E3 = £3,000 (cost of additional need £9,000 less E2 £6,000)

How the funding is passed to the school

E1 – included in schools annual formula budget.

E2 – School meets £6,000 cost from its notional SEN budget, in this example the notional budget is £10,000, so £6,000 is used for this pupil and the balance of £4,000 is available for the remaining pupils in the school with lower level needs)

E3- LA funds the £3,000

Notional SEN Top Up, this is in addition to Element 3

There are some schools who have a disproportionate number of high needs pupils relative to their notional SEN funding. In these cases, the LA has agreed to provide “notional SEN top up funding”, which could contribute towards (or in some cases fully fund) the E2 £6,000. This should not be confused with E3 funding, which is something different. Schools can attract both notional SEN top up and E3 top up funding.

No school will pay more than 3% of its notional SEN budget towards the £6,000 E2 contribution for an individual pupil. In addition, a threshold of 20% has been set where no school will pay more than 20% of its notional SEN budget towards the total E2 £6,000 contribution for all HNPs in the school. Once the 20% has been reached, the full £6,000 will be reimbursed to the school.

Pressure on the High Needs Budget

The number of High Needs placement in institutions is proportionally increasing at a greater rate than would be expected compared to the overall growth in pupil numbers. We have seen an increase in High Needs Placements of 4.1% in 2014-15 and anticipate an increase in placements the increase for 2015-16 to be around 5.5%. If this trend continues high needs placements will increase annually by around 6%. In recent times we have been able to meet the pressure from the schools block. Once we start to see an increase in pupils in the secondary phase, this will not be possible and we will have to consider reducing school funding rates.

However, if the number of pupils supported in their local school with targeted high needs funding increases, and the evidence supports this is more cost effective solution, it will increase the capacity of Kent special schools to support the most complex pupils. This will ensure fewer placements are necessary within the non-maintained and independent sector.

We are still at an early stage in the cycle of high needs funding as a new process. It is too early to tell with any certainty, the overall number of high need pupils and the associated cost. A further update will be provided in the summer when we will have a clearer picture of and an indication of whether we have been successful in reducing the demand for statutory assessments which is one of our key objectives.

Contact Details

North Kent - debra.whitewood@kent.gov.uk
South Kent - alison.sandford@kent.gov.uk
East Kent - tina.button@kent.gov.uk
West Kent - nikki.twiner@kent.gov.uk or nicola.hockney@kent.gov.uk