Early Years SEND Inclusion Fund
As part of the Governments Early Years National Funding Formula, Local Authorities are required to establish a SEND Inclusion Fund for 2, 3 and 4 year olds with special educational needs who are accessing their free entitlement. The funds are intended to enable local authorities to work with early years providers to meet the needs of individual children with SEN to support children’s learning and development. National guidance also states Local Authorities should target the fund at children with “lower level or emerging SEN.”
Consultation
A consultation on the level of the fund and the funding criteria was completed in April – May 2019.
Consultation questions and responses
The consultation asked two questions around the level of the fund and the funding criteria. It ran from 2 April 2019 – 17 May 2019.
29 responses were received.
Question 1. Do you agree with the value of the SEND Inclusion Fund?
Out of the 29 responses received:
14 replied yes.
14 replied no.
1 gave no response.
Question 2. Do you agree with the funding criteria?
Out of the 29 responses received:
15 replied yes.
13 replied no.
1 gave no response.
Response to the consultation
Thank you to those of you who took the time to share your views and respond to the consultation.
As a result of feedback received the following changes have been made:
- the flexibility of the criteria has been reviewed and updated.
- payments for children attending over 15 hours (who are entitled to 30 hours) has been updated.
The final funding criteria is outlined below.
What are the funding criteria?
Child 24 – 30 months
Evidence that the child is working in the following Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) range in two of the three prime areas
(communication and language, physical development, personal, social and emotional development)
Tier 1
13 months or higher
Tier 2
7 – 12 months
Tier 3
0 – 6 months
Child 31 – 42 months
Evidence that the child is working in the following Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) range in two of the three prime areas
(communication and language, physical development, personal, social and emotional development)
Tier 1
25 months or higher
Tier 2
13 – 24 months
Tier 3
0 – 12 months
Child 43 – 48 months
Evidence that the child is working in the following Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) range in two of the three prime areas
(communication and language, physical development, personal, social and emotional development)
Tier 1
31 months or higher
Tier 2
19 – 30 months
Tier 3
0 – 18 months
Child 49 – 54 months
Evidence that the child is working in the following Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) range in two of the three prime areas
(communication and language, physical development, personal, social and emotional development)
Tier 1
37 months or higher
Tier 2
25 – 36 months
Tier 3
0 – 24 months
Child 55 – 60 months
Evidence that the child is working in the following Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) range in two of the three prime areas
(communication and language, physical development, personal, social and emotional development)
Tier 1
43 months or higher
Tier 2
31 – 42 months
Tier 3
0 – 30 months
Child 61 – 66 months
Evidence that the child is working in the following Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) range in two of the three prime areas
(communication and language, physical development, personal, social and emotional development)
Tier 1
49 months or higher
Tier 2
37 – 48 months
Tier 3
0 – 36 months
Funding will not be available until the term after a child’s 2nd birthday.
Applications for children who have a very significant difficulty in one area only, which is impacting on their education, may be considered for funding, if appropriate evidence is provided.
What are the funding levels?
The funding will provide a contribution to support the needs of the child. Funding will be a fixed lump sum based on the level of need of the child and their current attendance.
Tier 1
Lower level needs will be met by the settings through the setting’s own resources as part of the graduated response. This support will be over and above that support which is ordinarily available to children in your setting. Much of this support will be provided through differentiation of the curriculum and reasonable adjustments.
Tier 2
£410 per term. Funding allocations will be pro-rated for less than 15 or 30 hours attendance.
Tier 3
£890 per term. Funding allocations will be pro-rated for less than 15 or 30 hours attendance.
Before an application is made to the SEN Inclusion Fund settings must have undertaken an assessment of an individual child, put in place existing resource to support a child’s SEN. This support will be over and above that support which is ordinarily available to children in a setting. Much of this support will be provided through differentiation of the curriculum and reasonable adjustments. Settings should also consult with external specialist support services e.g. Early Years Area SENCO, speech and language therapists.
Response to the Consultation Questions
A number of questions were received as part of the SEND Inclusion Fund Consultation. Responses to these are provided below.
Is the funding term-time only?
The funding provided will be a lump sum for a term but can be utilised over a period of time in the same way as the 15 hours can be stretched.
When applying, how can the supporting documents be sent?
Supporting documents will no longer be required as part of the new application form.
Will two and three year old criteria still need completing?
There will not be separate criteria/applications for different age groups. These are all included within the new Funding criteria with one application form.
Will we still have to fill out a review for forum separately?
The review of a child for the Early Years Forum and the funding application form will be separate as the information required is different.
The review for the Early Years Forum is required to monitor the progress of a child and enable the Forum to suggest the right support for the child, at the right time.
The funding application form is a separate process which may be submitted at different times to the review documents. The length of the funding application form will be reduced to lessen the paperwork on settings.
If a child moves mid-term, how will this funding be paid to different providers?
Funding can be transferred to a new setting if a child moves. If a child moves some of the remaining funding can be transferred to the new setting.
The pilot dates state it will end on 31 July 2020 – this will not include providers open all year round, and/or for those families who access a ‘stretched’ funding place?
The pilot will end on 31 July 2020, but the funding system will continue during evaluation. The funding will be a lump sum which can be utilised by the early years setting over a period of time.
Do you have a ‘definition’ of who you mean by ‘external services’?
Before an application is made to the SEN Inclusion Fund providers must have undertaken an assessment of an individual child and put in place existing resource. This support will be over and above that support which is ordinarily available to children in your setting. Much of this support will be provided through differentiation of the curriculum and reasonable adjustments. The setting should also consult with external specialist support services, as appropriate e.g. Early Years Area SENCos, speech and language therapists.
What is the funding for children attending over 15 hours?
Children attending over 15 hours (who are entitled to 30 hours) will receive this funding at a pro rata rate.
If funding is applied for in the Autumn term – when will the funding commence from?
If an application for funding is received in July 2019 and funding is awarded the funding will be available for September 2019.
If an application for funding is received in before October half term and funding is awarded the funding will be available after October half term 2019.
If an application for funding is received in after October half term and funding is awarded the funding will be available January 2020.
How will applications be processed and validated?
The applications will be discussed on a half termly basis and early years settings notified of the outcome.
Applications will be considered by a multi-agency forum. This will ensure applications are considered by a range of practitioners and ensure consistency in decision making.
The Early Years Area SENCos can provide support to settings who may require this in order to complete the application form and provide assessment levels.
How will funding be monitored?
The Early Years Area SENCOs will take a role in monitoring the funded places.
This process will be monitored and evaluated as part of the pilot.
To meet the needs at Tier One there needs to be raised awareness of the Graduated Approach
The Local Authority is currently trialling an online graduated response toolkit for school age children. Work will commence to develop a graduated response toolkit for early years in September 2019. We will be seeking volunteers from early years settings to be involved in the project. If you are interested email localoffer@staffordshire.gov.uk