Devon’s SEND Local Offer

The EHCP funding framework

The EHCP funding framework explains how Devon decides the level of top-up funding for children and young people with an EHCP.

Its purpose is to make funding decisions clearer, fairer and more consistent, so that children and young people with similar levels of need are supported in a more consistent way across Devon schools.

The framework is used to help determine top-up funding. This is the additional funding provided by the Local Authority for children and young people with an EHCP whose needs require support beyond what schools would normally be expected to provide from their existing resources.

The framework is a ‘needs-led’ way of looking at a child or young person’s level of need and linking that to a funding ‘band’.

It is based on the different ways need can present across the main areas of SEND. These include:

  • communication and interaction
  • cognition and learning
  • social, emotional and mental health
  • sensory and physical needs

Within the framework, needs are described across a range of levels. These levels show increasing complexity and impact on learning, participation and access to the school day. Those levels are then used to help identify the most appropriate funding band.

In simple terms, the framework helps answer the question: What level of additional support is likely to be needed for this child or young person, based on their overall profile of need?

  • How the framework works

    When an EHCP is being developed or reviewed, the SEND Operations Team look at the available advice and evidence collected from schools and other professionals about the child or young person’s needs.

    Using the framework, they consider which descriptions of need in the funding framework best fit the child or young person’s needs across the relevant areas. Those levels of need are then brought together to identify the overall funding band. This band has a funding value attached to it, which determines the support that the child or young person will receive.

  • What the framework does and does not do

    The EHCP funding framework:

    • supports more consistent decisions about top-up funding
    • helps make the process more transparent for schools and families
    • links funding more clearly to level of need
    • gives a shared language for talking about need across the system

    The EHCP funding framework does not:

    • replace professional judgement – it allows a shared structure for considering need, but decisions still rely on careful judgement about the individual child or young person, their profile of need, and the support required
    • replace the EHCP itself  – the framework supports funding decisions around the plan, but it does not take the place of the plan
    • mean children and young people are seen through a single label – the framework supports decision-making, but it does not replace the need to understand each child’s individual strengths, needs and circumstances
  • Why the framework was reviewed

    We reviewed the previous framework because partners told us it was not working as well as it needed to.

    Through engagement with schools, parents, carers and wider partners, several concerns came through clearly.

    The old system did not always feel fair or consistent

    We heard that that funding decisions could feel too variable. Similar levels of need did not always appear to lead to similar outcomes, and some felt decisions could be influenced by timing, process or how strongly a case was put forward.

    The process was not always clear enough

    Parents and carers told us they often did not understand how funding decisions were reached. Some described the process as opaque and difficult to navigate. Schools also wanted greater clarity about how need linked to funding.

    The old framework had gaps

    The previous approach did not always provide enough range between funding points. This meant some children’s needs did not sit neatly within the available bands, creating pressure in the system and leading to less confidence that the formal framework reflected need as accurately as it should.

  • What we have tried to improve

    The redesigned EHCP funding framework aims to respond directly to those concerns.

    It has been developed to be more:

    • needs-led – the focus is on the child or young person’s profile of need and the impact that has on access to learning and the school day
    • transparent – the framework gives clearer descriptions of different levels of need, so there is a more understandable link between evidence, professional judgement and funding band
    • consistent – the framework has been designed alongside an extensive programme of moderation to achieve consistent outcomes and the implementation is supported by training and further moderation, to help improve consistency in how decisions are made
    • flexible and practical – the framework uses a best-fit approach rather than a rigid checklist, allowing room for professional judgement while still giving a clear structure
    • inclusive in its intent – by improving how mainstream top-up funding is matched to need, the framework is intended to support earlier, more proportionate responses and strengthen confidence in inclusive mainstream provision where that is appropriate
  • How the framework was developed

    The EHCP funding framework has been developed through a significant programme of co-design across the Devon SEND system. Schools, parents, carers and local authority colleagues have all contributed to shaping the framework.

    The development process included:

    • early engagement and analysis to understand what was not working well in the old system
    • workshops to agree the guiding principles for the new framework
    • working group sessions to draft and refine the descriptors within each area of need
    • framework development workshops with schools, parents, carers and Devon County Council colleagues to test and improve the draft
    • moderation exercises with SENDCos using real EHCP case examples to test consistency and identify where further refinement was needed
    • ‘check and challenge’ sessions with schools to request feedback on the approach to setting the funding values

    This process helped us to refine the framework to ensure that it can work in practice. It also helped build shared understanding across the system about how need should be understood and how banding decisions should be applied.