School Funding Reforms Notional SEN: Elements 1, 2 and 3 Richard Shirley Children’s Services Finance

Introduction DSG funding reforms introduced the concept of ‘notional SEN’ in 2013-14 This is the idea that within school budgets was an allocation for dealing with ‘expensive’ children, with higher needs than a child without SEN. Introduction

Introduction Manchester has always included and expected its schools to fund these children from within the delegated budget share; up to a maximum of £10,000. This is because, although the Schools Block funding is allocated on an equal basis per pupil, the costs incurred by schools are not linear and there is an expectation that the less expensive children will contribute towards the more expensive children. Introduction Slide 3

Changes Under the 2013-14 funding reforms the idea of notional SEN continues in Manchester, but is refined. Now schools are expected to contribute up to the basic entitlement + £6,000 per SEN child from their budget share. This is also know as element 1 (core education funding) and element 2 (additional support funding) Anything above this threshold is called element 3 – ‘top up’ funding. Top up funding is also known as individually assigned resources (IAR) and is for statemented or resource agreement children Changes Slide 4

Notional SEN per pupil Notional SEN per pupil What is the notional SEN? Slide 5

Notional SEN per pupil The expected maximum school contribution to each child is set out below. Pupil age Element 1: core education funding (AWPU) Element 2: additional support funding Total school contribution per pupil (the ‘notional SEN’ to be found, per high needs child) Primary £3,101 £6,000 £9,101 KS3 £4,111 £10,111 KS4 £4,476 £10,476 Notional SEN per pupil What is the notional SEN? Slide 6

School Budget Shares Reception – Y11 pupils are funded based on the October census and are funded through the schools block Nurseries are funded based on numbers returned on each termly census School Budget Shares How schools are funded Slide 7

School Budget Shares This is the AWPU – element 1 School Budget Shares Where is my notional SEN? Slide 8

Element 3 comes through the High Needs Block - here School Budget Shares Element 2 is contained within this total budget share Element 3 comes through the High Needs Block - here School Budget Shares Where is my notional SEN? Slide 9

School Budget Shares Notional SEN is paid with the school budget share – 13 payments from April to March, all approximately 7% of the total annual allocation High needs (IAR) budgets are set at the start of the financial year and adjusted quarterly based on actual pupil intake and statemented need School Budget Shares When do I get my notional SEN? Slide 10

Central High Needs Budgets £61 million total High Needs Block £41 million delegated to special schools, special academies, named pupils and in year adjustments £12.5 million centrally retained, of which £6.6m is to pay for ‘out of authority’ SEN children Others including SEN transport, support for inclusion, independent special schools fees Central High Needs Budgets Slide 11

Challenges in Manchester’s DSG Same pot of money as last year, but more children with statements and more expensive statements Special schools have increased in size – no more money to fund this Post-16 SEN funding has been based on 2011-12 data, Manchester’s population, costs and children with SEN has increased dramatically since then – estimated £2m+ shortfall in funding Challenges in DSG Slide 12

Statements and Resource Agreements - Trends Statements - Trends Slide 13