Project Description
Special Education Needs
Local authorities are required to have Special Education Needs (SEN) inclusion funds for all three and four year olds with special educational needs who are taking up the free entitlements, regardless of the number of hours taken. These funds are intended to support local authorities to work with providers to address the needs of individual children with SEN. This fund will also support local authorities to undertake their responsibilities to strategically commission SEN services as required under the Children and Families Act 2014.
Eligibility
Local authorities should target SEN Inclusion Funds at children with lower level or emerging SEN. Children with more complex needs and those in receipt of an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) continue to be eligible to receive funding via the high needs block of the DSG2.
As with other elements of early years funding, SEN inclusion funds should apply to children attending settings in the relevant local authority area, regardless of where they live.
Funding details
Local authorities are required to have Special Education Needs (SEN) inclusion funds for all three and four year olds with special educational needs who are taking up the free entitlements, regardless of the number of hours taken. These funds are intended to support local authorities to work with providers to address the needs of individual children with SEN. This fund will also support local authorities to undertake their responsibilities to strategically commission SEN services as required under the Children and Families Act 2014.
Value of funding
The value of the fund must take into account the number of children with SEN in the local area, their level of need, and the overall capacity of the local childcare market to support these children. Local authorities must consult with early years providers to set the value of their local SEN inclusion fund.
Sources of funding
Local authorities will establish their SEN inclusion funds using funding from either one or both of their early years block and high needs block of the DSG.
Allocation of funding
Local authorities must consult with early years providers, parents and SEN specialists on how the SEN inclusion fund will be allocated, as part of the preparation and review of their ‘Local Offer’. Under this ‘Local Offer’, local authorities should publish details on how they are using their SEN inclusion fund to support their early years SEN. Further information on the high needs funding system can be found in the High Needs Funding 2018 to 2019 Operational Guide.
These details should include the eligibility criteria for the fund, the planned value of the fund at the start of the year, and the process for allocating the fund to providers.
Local authorities should pass the majority of their SEN inclusion fund to providers in the form of ‘top up grants’ on a case-by-case basis. Local authorities can also use part of their SEN inclusion funds to support specialist SEN services in their local area. However, any funding used for these local authority-wide support services will not count towards the 95% high pass-through.
Eligible providers
All early years providers that are eligible to receive funding for the entitlements for three and four year olds are also eligible to receive support from the SEN inclusion fund.
Compliance
Local authorities must record the planned value of their SEN inclusion funds in their s251 returns.
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