Consultation on how Early Years and schools are funded for children with SEND
The changes to the way children with SEND are funded in schools and Early Years Settings has been put out for consultation.The consultation will look closer at making it a fairer way of distributing funding.
The move will mean that funding will go directly to schools from central, government; this will mean it will bypass local authorities. These changes have been set out by education secretary Nicky Morgan and will come into effect from 2019-2020.
As funding will bypass local authorities, they will still, however, play a role in disturbing significant additional funding to help children with high-level Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. This will be distributed on a fair and formulaic basis, meaning a more fairer way of supporting children with Special Educational Needs and disabilities.
The consultation will also look at how funding is distributed to Early Years Settings.
As previously announced, there will also be a parallel consultation on introducing a national funding formula for early years funding, this consultation is to take place later this year. As at present there are no systems for early year’s settings to recover SEND funding.
Many people in the early year’s sector are questioning whether the funding rate for higher needs would be enough to support the children.
The consultation needs to look at whether the funding recognises the extra cost early years settings have to pay to provide a provision that supports children with Special Education Needs and Disabilities. Therefore, changes to the early year’s single funding formula need to support setting with these additional costs so that all children can access the best support.