ENF conference 2nd March 2018 Hertfordshire’s Early Years SEND Funding Arrangements Kim Littlechild Debbi Watson Hertfordshire County Council www.hertfordshire.gov.uk

Early Years Funding streams. Hertfordshire’s Private, Voluntary and Independent (PVI) pre-schools / nurseries and maintained nurseries currently have access to 2 funding streams: Exceptional Needs funding (ENF) Emerging needs funding (EmNF) Hertfordshire County Council www.hertfordshire.gov.uk

Early Years Funding streams … PVI pre-schools / nurseries and maintained nurseries access Exceptional Needs funding under the same parameters as other school settings. i.e. they are required to demonstrate a child’s difficulties are exceptional, provide evidence of implementing a highly differentiated curriculum and package of support under the Code of Practice assess, plan, do, review guidance etc. Hertfordshire County Council www.hertfordshire.gov.uk

Early Years Funding streams … PVI pre-schools / nurseries and maintained nurseries have also had access to an Emerging Needs funding ‘pot’ since April 17 . This came about as a result of the Government publishing the outcome of its consultation regarding the introduction of the Early Years National Funding Formula in December 2016. The money is from the Government’s Early Years Inclusion Fund. During the initial year of funding providers had access, countywide, to a fund of approximately £200k in total. The funding was available for early years settings (including child-minders) who were providing funded educational places for 3 and 4 year olds. Hertfordshire County Council www.hertfordshire.gov.uk

Emerging needs funding … Which children did this funding support? Children aged 3 – 4yrs identified as having an emerging additional / special educational need who are receiving free early years education. Children for whom a setting is implementing support and intervention strategies additional to or different from what is normally provided by good quality teaching and differentiation to other children of the same age. Children for whom professional advice has been sought and specialist interventions recommended. e.g. therapists or advisory teachers (EY / HI / VI). The funding was allocated for individual children as a contribution towards their support. Hertfordshire County Council www.hertfordshire.gov.uk

Emerging needs funding … What could the funding be used for? The funding was intended to support Early Years settings with early intervention to address emerging needs, and to set up support for individual children. The funding could be used to buy resources, access staff training specific to a child’s needs and increase staffing ratios to provide enhanced support for a child. The support and interventions had to be closely linked to outcomes for the child that had been agreed with parents, the setting and professionals involved with the child. Evidence of external advice having been received and implemented was required as evidenced in targeted support plans / IEPs. This funding stream was put in place initially for a year while a full EY funding review was undertaken in Summer 2017. The outcomes of the initial review has led to the decision being taken that EmNF will remain. Hertfordshire County Council www.hertfordshire.gov.uk

Emerging needs funding … Funding was allocated for 1 – 3 terms. Like ENF, settings could apply for a continuation if they could provide evidence of the impact of what had already been provided for the child the previous term. The amounts allocated per term were: For children attending 15 hours - £250 For children attending 30 hours - £500 Hertfordshire County Council www.hertfordshire.gov.uk

Emerging needs funding … As a decision has been taken to continue to offer EmNF the parameters of its use and implementation are being considered e.g.: … should funded 2 year olds be eligible? … clarity of the application form? Guidance? … should there be funding available for children attending setting other than just for their full entitlement of 15 or 30 hours? …how do we allocate the money fairly? … timescales? … should we be offering the funding for clusters of children? If you have any thoughts to contribute to this ‘review’ please write on a post it and pass to Kim or Debbi throughout the morning. Or email your suggestions to kim.littlechild@hertfordshire.gov.uk by Tuesday 6th March. Hertfordshire County Council www.hertfordshire.gov.uk

Early Years ENF Graduated Response One of the latest initiatives to support ENF application and decision making processes has been the publication of the 4 area of need descriptors. As many of you know early years is it’s own ‘unique’ world relative to meeting the needs of young children. In order to support the application of ENF principles to the PVI / nursery sector we are in the process of ‘tweaking’ the descriptors to make them more relevant to decision making around exceptionality for our youngest children. As you are aware the descriptors of need are graduated over 4 columns. The expectation is that children’s needs described in the first 2 columns will be met from within a settings existing resources, or possible access to Emerging Needs Funding. If a child meets several of the descriptors of ‘need’ in column 3 or 1 to 2 descriptors of ‘need’ in column 4 then the child is more likely to be perceived as exceptional. This tool is to be used to support professional judgments about a child’s needs, not replace them. Hertfordshire County Council www.hertfordshire.gov.uk

ENF Early Years ENF Graduated Response – we need your help! In groups look at the completed Early Years example. We would like you to consider the school based descriptors and suggest ways in which they could be more ‘Early Years Friendly. Discuss on your tables and make notes on the sheets. Please also write any comments/thoughts/relevant musings on the back for us to consider when developing this further. Thank you. Hertfordshire County Council www.hertfordshire.gov.uk