Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) – Inclusion Funding for Early Years

There are 2 different funding streams for SEND:

• Universal Inclusion Fund
• Individual Inclusion Fund

• Universal Inclusion Fund?

  An additional 10p per hour is paid for all hours claimed, for all ages, each term for the universal and working entitlements. This is added to the hourly base rate with universal deprivation funding. It is automatically calculated, based on your total termly hours claimed on your Headcount submission.  Payments will be made with your normal Early Years Funding payments and can be viewed on your Financial Breakdown Report issued on the provider portal.

  Universal Inclusion Funding is to support providers to have ordinarily available inclusive provision and practice and to make reasonable adjustments to enable children with low level SEND to access their early years entitlements.

  It is essential to monitor children’s progress throughout the EYFS. Early years settings should adopt a graduated approach to meeting a child’s needs, as set out in the DfE SEND Code of Practice, 2014. 

• What is Individual Inclusion Funding?

  Individual Inclusion Funding (IIF) can be requested by providers to support the inclusion of children who have additional needs that are above and beyond those that can be met through the Ordinarily Available Inclusive Provision (OAIP). The funding is a contribution to enable settings to provide enhanced provision and intervention that will impact on the children’s progress and outcomes. IIF is available to support eligible children of all ages who are in receipt of the Early Years Entitlement Funding (EYEF). There continues to be a finite amount of resources and therefore Devon are taking a pro-active approach to ensuring the funding that is available has the greatest impact on children’s outcomes and supports early identification and intervention.

  We expect settings to be clear about how they plan to use the funding prior to making the application. Parents views should always be considered.  

  The funding can be used in a number of ways, for example staff training, additional resources and/or additional adult support (this does not mean full time one to one support).

  Settings must ensure that that the funding is targeted to support the individual child to make progress

  Termly panel meetings will consider requests for IIF and decide if funding should be awarded. There are 3 levels of funding that may be awarded as follows:

  • Level 1:  £1440 per year
  • Level 2:  £1800 per year
  • Level 3:  £2250 per year

  These funding amounts are based on a child attending 15 hours per week / 570 hours per year.  Therefore if the child attends for 30 hours the funding amount would be doubled or if the child attends less hours per week, funding will be reduced.

  Due to the various models of funding available for children at settings and to ensure we fund children doing less weekly hours on a stretched offer, IIF will be calculated in line with their Early Years Funding entitlement and termly claims.

  The examples below confirms how funding will be calculated:

  • Level 1 funding (£1440 the year) / by 570 hours (universal entitlement) x termly funded hours claimed for Autumn term (14 weeks x 20 hours = 280 hours) = £707.37 for Autumn Term
  • Level 1 funding (£1440 the year) / by 570 hours (universal entitlement) x termly funded hours claimed for Spring term (11 weeks x 20 hours = 220 hours) = £555.79 for Spring Term

  Because the IIF is attached to the Early Years Entitlement Funding, payments will be made after the Headcount.

• What to include in applications

  Applications need to include the following:

  • A detailed description of the child’s needs and barriers to learning
  • How the Graduated Approach has been followed and evidence of Assess, Plan, Do and Review
  • Information about any referrals to other agencies
  • How any advice given by other professionals has been implemented.

  Evidence of need will be indicated through observations by staff in settings, by parents/carers and reports from appropriate professionals. Copies of reports from other professional need not be included with the application but available if requested by the Panel or the Early Years Consultant.

  The termly review for measuring impact should include:

  • How the funding is being used
  • Evidence of the child’s progress since receiving the inclusion funding
  • Parent’s view of their child’s progress since receiving the funding
  • The child’s voice supported through observations, responses and conversations with parents  
  • How the setting plans to use any future funding.
• How to Apply

  Please use the links below to submit your application:

  • Individual Inclusion Funding – Online Application
  • Individual Inclusion Parent Consent Template
  • Individual Inclusion Funding Guidance Notes
• Application Deadlines

  Applications for support must be received by the following dates:

  • 31st October for funding to commence 1st January
  • 28th February for funding to commence 1st April
  • 31st May for funding to commence 1st September

  Additional panel meetings are held at the start of each term to consider requests for funding where there are exceptional circumstances. Late applications that miss the deadline are considered during this meeting.

  Applications for the additional panel meetings must be received by the following dates: 

  • 31st December for the spring term 

  • 31st March for the summer term  

  • 31st August for the autumn term  

  Applications will be decided at Panel meetings.

• Review of impact for Individual Inclusion Funding

  To ensure Individual Inclusion Funding (IIF) is allocated and meeting the needs of children across Devon, we have changed the way we collect information about the progress and outcomes of children with SEND.

  Further to our previous correspondence, the termly Review of Impact (RoI) for children in receipt of IIF needs to be completed online on the link below:

  Individual Inclusion Funding Termly RoI

  If you require the funding to continue, you must ensure that the RoI is completed each term, even if funding is not required in Summer so that we have a record of the child’s progress.

  Dates for RoI completion 

  • 31st October for funding to continue 1st January 

  • 28th February for funding to continue 1st April 

  • 31st May for funding to continue 1st September 

  The RoI will be audited by our Early Years Team who may contact you if they have any queries.

• Local Offer

  SEND Local Offer