Special Educational Needs Inclusion Fund (SEN IF) Guidelines and Applicaiton Process

Additional financial support for children to attend early years education

(EYE) provision

 Created / Revised Next review  Version  

October 2020  August 2022 V4January 2021

Table of Contents1.0 Background 2

2.0 What are the criteria for providing support? 3

2.1 Special Educational Needs Support Guidance for Early Years Providers 3

2.2 SEN Inclusion Fund Framework for Decision Making 3

2.3 What is the level of support? 5

3.0 How should the funding be used? 6

4.0 Procedure to claim funding 7

4.1 Documentation 8

4.2 Timescales 8

4.3 Continuation and Reviews 8

4.4 Monitoring 8

4.5 Appeals Process 9

4.6 Transition to School 9

1.0 BackgroundServices for Young Children (SfYC) manage a budget to enable pre-school children with emerging special educational needs (SEN) to take up their free entitlement and attend a local early years setting registered to provide Early Years Education (EYE) in Hampshire.

Funding to support children with SEN is partly distributed directly through the Early Years Education grant, which every Hampshire child is entitled to from the term after his or her third birthday, or for eligible children from the term after their second birthday.

It is anticipated that the majority of children’s special educational needs will be supported without the need to apply for SEN Inclusion Funding (SEN IF), as a notional budget to support children with SEN has been included within the Early Years National Funding Formula EYE hourly rate for Hampshire providers. This was as a result of consultation responses and is intended to give providers the flexibility to manage the income from funding without the need to go through an administration process.

EYE providers can also apply to a SEN Inclusion Funding Panel to access additional SEN IF where children have emerging SEN, but there is a need to provide considerably higher levels of support to a child during the majority of their time at a provision. SEN IF is intended as a contribution towards providing additional resources and support for the child and is not necessarily expected to cover full costs. This funding is also available to provide up to 5 hours funding for up to 38 weeks each year for children who are 2 years old but not eligible for the 2-year-old EYE entitlement.

Support for children who have an Educational, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), but who have a delayed entry into school and instead remain in an EYE funded placement, is funded through the SEN IF, for the number of EYE hours the child attends.

Any EYE providers who are unfamiliar with the procedure should contact their Inclusion Setting Support Officer SENCo Advice Line on 01962 847070 (option 1) for further advice.

2.0 What are the criteria for providing support? In recognition of the very individual nature of special educational needs and disabilities and the support which is required to meet these needs, the SEN IF Panel will use a ‘Framework for Decision Making’ to aid the discussion and decision making process (outlined below). This is to ensure that all applications for SEN IF are considered with the appropriate levels of rigour, whilst still allowing the SEN IF Panel flexibility to consider the individual nature of children’s and settings’ needs. The Inclusion Setting Support Officers (ISSOs) will be vital in ensuring this process is robust, offering support, guidance, and challenge to settings at the earliest opportunity.

2.1 Special Educational Needs Support Guidance for Early Years ProvidersThis guidance outlines to providers the range of interventions that should be ordinary available in all Hampshire EYE settings and which should be implemented prior to the provider making an application for SEN IF. These interventions are to be provided using the Early Years National Funding Formula EYE hourly rate for Hampshire providers, which includes notional funding to support children with SEN.

No SEN Inclusion Fund applications will be considered without clear evidence that all resources have been exhausted in relation to supporting the child within the setting and evidence is provided that clearly indicates that the Early Years Special Educational Needs Support Guidance for Early Years Providers has been appliedhttps://www.hants.gov.uk/socialcareandhealth/childrenandfamilies/childcare/providers/resources-filter?filter=.Inclusion.SEN-funding

2.2 SEN Inclusion Fund Framework for Decision Making The following factors will be considered when deciding whether to award the SEN IF:

The graduated approach has been fully implemented: All resources have been exhausted in relation to supporting the child within the setting and evidence is provided that clearly indicates that the measures outlined in the Early Years Special Educational Needs Support Guidance for Early Years Providers have been applied.

Advice has been sought and implemented from external agencies, with evidence of the ‘assess, plan, do, review’ approach. Where there are difficulties accessing external agencies, this is clearly documented.

Where there is evidence to demonstrate that a child has such significant needs that they will need support in order to be able to initially access the setting, funding applications can be considered prior to implementing the graduated approach, however conditions will apply (see section 4.3).

The number of interventions that need intensive support (if the child requires significant interventions throughout the session which are over and above those expected within Early Years Special Educational Needs Support Guidance for Early Years Providers).

Targeted support is not having an impact: The child is making little or no progress against individual small step goals

or the child is regressing. The setting is unable to provide the required support through flexible staff

deployment and planning. This will consider any SEN IF the setting is already receiving and any other children requiring SEN support. Several individual applications can be used to provide an overall inclusive environment that meets a range of complex needs; in this kind of situation, the funding becomes less orientated to individual children and more about economies of scale (although the claiming process has to be linked to individual children) - for instance funding 3 of 6 applications with the intention of the setting using the funding flexibly to meet the needs of all 6 children.

The risk assessment demonstrates that with all resources available and appropriate measures put in place, there remains a high risk to the child and other children (with regards to the child’s safety and ability to progress developmentally). Where the application is to support additional staffing levels to keep a child safe, the application must explicitly outline how having additional staff will achieve this and what other control measures have been put in place to reduce the risk.

Parents agree with, and coproduce, strategies and the plan to meet needs. The child’s needs are met in the setting in a similar way as they are at home.

The application provides a clear demonstration of how the funding will be used to meet the child’s needs and gives context with regards to the setting, for example size of setting, ages of children within the room, impact on other children.

The child has significant Social Communication Difficulties. The child has Severe Learning Difficulties (SLD) or Profound and Multiple

Learning Difficulties (PMLD). The child has 2 or more distinct and separate areas of needs/issues, for

example a pupil with social communication needs and a visual impairment. The child has been offered a ‘peripatetic’ SEN Hub place, a ‘static’ Hub place,

an SEN Assessment place or has a final EHCP but parents have decided not to accept the offer or require additional provision in order to access their entitlement for 30 hours; or the Pre-school Advisory Group judge that a child meets the criteria for a SEN Hub place but all spaces are full.

The child has such significant and complex medical needs that they meet the continuing care threshold and multiple agencies are already involved.

A one-off payment can be considered where training is needed for staff to support a child in a setting; if the training required is beyond that currently being provided by Services for Young Children and partners.

Specialist equipment should in most cases be provided on loan from the Hampshire Specialist Equipment Store. Where the equipment is not available a one-off payment can be considered from the SEN IF. The equipment must have been recommended and approved by Occupational Therapy and must be purchased through the Hampshire Specialist Equipment Store. If the setting is eligible for Disability Access Funding (DAF) this should be the first source of funding for specialist equipment and the SEN IF should only be requested if the DAF does not meet the full cost.

The child must be due to remain at the setting for more than half a term from the date of the SEN IF Moderation Panel to be eligible for funding.

2.3 What is the level of support?A maximum of 2 settings can apply to split SEN IF for a child at the same time. The SEN IF Panel will consider splitting funding for more than 2 settings in exceptional circumstances only.

The SEN IF rate for the 2020/21 financial year is £6.00 per EYE hour unless the child is eligible for continuing care when the panel will agree the funding amount with the Continuing Care Team.

Information about the actual number of hours per week to be funded is collected at the same time as the information needed for claiming Early Years Education funding.

The SEN IF is only available to providers who are registered with Hampshire County Council to provide EYE places and whose premises are located within Hampshire (with the exception of children who have a Hampshire final EHCP and attend a setting across the county border).

3.0 How should the funding be used? It is often assumed that the funding should be used to provide additional staffing to support a child for the whole time a child is attending a provision. In fact, a more flexible approach is often more appropriate. For example, some funding may be needed to provide differentiated resources or SEN equipment for the child or to ensure that the child is able to work with one or more other children in small groups. Generally, the resources should be used flexibly to ensure that the child’s needs are met.

Where funding is approved to contribute towards additional staffing the aim should be to free up time for the key person(s) to offer regular intensive adult support to for one or more children in order to support them to be able to use SEN strategies. SEN IF should not be used to assign a new member of staff to a child.

The aim of additional funding should be to enable the child to utilise strategies such as visual aids, PECS and other forms of communication so that the child can gain the independence to access learning opportunities in the setting with less reliance on individual adult support.

The ISSO, will be able to offer advice on using the funding and have responsibility for monitoring how the funding is used. Where appropriate, the ISSO can advise the EYE provider about seeking specialist child level setting support from a special school, early years centre or a Portage Inclusion Practitioner (PIP).

4.0 Procedure to claim funding

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4.1 DocumentationThe SEN IF panel will only consider applications which have first been discussed at an ISSO Early Years SENCo Support Surgery. The provider must have all supporting reports (e.g. Speech and Language Therapist, Paediatrician report etc) available for the ISSO to review at the Surgery.

The provider must also have an SEN Local Offer published on the Family and Information Service (FISH) website for parents to read. All applications must be sent by email as an electronic document and the supporting documentation – a completed risk assessment, an annotated setting plan and copies of the 2 latest IEPs for the child must also be provided with the application as separate electronic documents.

4.2 TimescalesThe SEN IF funding panel will be held 10 times each year to enable efficient and effective decision making. The ISSO will advise the setting of the next panel dates and the cut-off date for applying at the ISSO Early Years SENCo Support Surgery. Fully completed applications and supporting information must be received 2 weeks prior to each. The ISSO will have up until the day before the panel to complete their written endorsement.

If a setting submits an incomplete application and/or information 2 weeks prior to the panel which leads to additional information being requested, and this then leads to the corrected application/information being received less than 2 weeks before the panel, the application will be moved to next panel.

4.3 Continuation and ReviewsIf the child is 2 years old at the time of the SEN IF approval, the SEN IF will be reviewed after a fixed period of time. The panel will advise the setting of the date of the review and it will be the setting’s responsibility to arrange participation with a ISSO Early Years SENCo Support Surgery and complete the relevant continuation form and supporting information.

Children who are approved for SEN funding before they start attending a setting will also have to be reviewed as above and this will take place six months after the funding begins.

4.4 MonitoringServices for Young Children will monitor how the funding is being used and the continued need for funding and may select applications at random each term and contact the setting to review the use and impact of the funding. Providers must ensure they are able

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to produce any report from other professionals which they used to assess the child’s needs.

4.5 Appeals Process

If the SEN IF Moderation Panel decline an application for funding the setting can re-apply if they have additional and different information to present. The ISSO must fully scrutinise the new evidence and explore with the setting all other possible alternative support strategies, including the use of the Early Years Special Educational Needs Support Guidance for Early Years Providers. An endorsement should only be made if the ISSO agrees that there is additional and different information which they judge will have an impact on the original assessment and decision made by the panel.

4.6 Transition to School

As children’s needs and early years and school environments, staffing models and resources can differ greatly EYSEN Inclusion Funding does not follow the child when they start school.

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