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

There are 3 different funding streams for SEND:

  • Universal Inclusion Fund
  • Targeted Inclusion Fund
  • Individual Inclusion Fund

  • An additional 4p per hour is being paid for all hours claimed for three- and four-year old funding each term, for the universal and extended entitlement.
    This will be automatically calculated, based on your total termly hours claimed on your Headcount submission.  Payment will be made with your normal headcount payments (AUT2/SUM2/SPR2).

  • Some providers will be entitled to this funding.  The early years and childcare service will look at the total number of two-, three- and four-year-olds in a setting for the year and calculate the percentage of two-year-olds and Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) claims.

    The triggers and payment that will be calculated are:

    • 25% or greater of two-year-old children will attract 2p for every three- and four-year-old funded hour
    • 15% or greater of EYPP children will attract 2p for every three- and four-year-old funded hour

    Some settings may qualify for both of these elements of the targeted inclusion funding.

    Termly payments will be calculated as per the Early Years Funding periods – Autumn 4 months, Spring 3 months and Summer 5 months of the annual allocation.

    Settings will be notified of their annual allocation in September. This will enable settings to plan for support for children across the year.

  • Individual Inclusion Funding is available to providers to support the inclusion of children who are at SEN Support. The aim is to support settings to provide enhanced provision and intervention that will impact on the children’s progress and outcomes. 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.

    There has sometimes been an expectation that ‘support’ in SEN Support will be in the form of additional staff to provide one to one support for a child. In fact this may not be the most appropriate way to help a child or groups of children to make progress and the ‘support’ may take the form of training, physical or sensory adaptations, small group or targeted interventions, or additional adult time to enable the child to learn.

    SEN Support Funding is available to support children in receipt of the Early Years Entitlement Funding. All children who are attending a setting from the term following their 3rd birthday for up to 15 hours who meet the criteria, will be eligible for a percentage of their time to be supported. Children who are in receipt of the 2 year old funding from the term after their 2nd birthday for up to 15 hours who meet the criteria, will be eligible for a percentage of their funded time to be supported.

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

    To assist settings in considering ways to improve outcomes for children with additional needs it is possible to make an application for funding to provide support through the setting or to support an individual child. This is now known as Individual Inclusion Funding (previously known as EY SEN Support or Early Years Action Plus Funding or EYAPF).

    Termly panel meetings will review applications of children with High Level Needs and discuss if funding will be awarded.  There are 3 levels of funding that may be awarded as follows:

    • Level 1 £480 / £1440 per year
    • Level 2 £600 / £1800 per year
    • Level 3 £750 / £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, individual SEND funding 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 Individual Inclusion Funding is attached to the Early Years Entitlement Funding, payments will be made after the Headcount.

  • Individual Inclusion Funding Application Form (currently being updated) – The form has 2 sections to allow for a setting application or an individual child application

    Application A: Group Funding

    The Inclusion Support Group Funding is available for 1 group per setting and will be provided for a maximum of 2 terms. Further applications can be made for new groups following a1 term gap. This is because this funding is provided as an enhancement to enable settings to provide targeted support for specific needs and not to provide ongoing additional staff for settings.

    • A setting can apply for funding to support inclusion work within the setting for targeted groups of children through specialist group work, additional staff CPD opportunities etc.

    Application B: Individual Child application to include:

    • Complex needs
    • Emergency funding application
    • Medical need that impacts on child’s learning and development
    • Child is identified at SEN SUPPORT
    • Where children are in receipt of Portage Home visiting service, an application will be made in conjunction with Portage prior to the child’s transition to the Early Years setting if appropriate. These applications may need less discussion at panel meeting
    • Settings can use individual application if child is known to one or more external agencies and there is a need for specific individual input.
    • Settings can use individual application to support emergency funding application or to manage complex medical needs following a discussion with/visit from EYC.

  • Applications need to include the following evidence:

    • A detailed description of the children’s/child’s unmet needs
    • Information relating to levels of development against the EYFS age bands
    • Strategies used and impact on development
    • Regard to the graduated response
    • Regard to the Inclusive Provision Matrix
    • Regard to multi-agency recommendations

    Evidence of need will be indicated through observations by staff in settings, by parents/carers and reports from appropriate professionals.

    Evidence of monitoring progress should include:

    • Examples of the child’s progress against EYFS development matters statements
    • Evidence of a graduated approach and interventions with outcomes [e.g. an IEP, DAF 2a (My Plan) or PEP]
      Please note that the setting will need to provide a summary of progress and intervention outcomes for the half termly review

    Evidence will be gathered as part of a practitioner’s normal work. Additional reports or summaries may form part of the application but are not necessary unless they provide additional information. They must not be submitted as a replacement for regular observation, assessments or reviews collected by setting practitioners.

  • Applications for support must be received by the dates on the top of the application form.

    • 31st October for funding to commence 1st January
    • 28th February for funding to commence mid-April (depending on Summer term start date)
    • 31st May for funding to commence 1st September

    Applications for emergency funding requests must be received by the first day of the term for which the funding is being applied for.

    Applications will be decided at Panel meeting.
    Funding will be allocated through the 0-25 SEN Team.

    Funding Allocation Requirements
    Where a setting is in receipt of funding a member of staff from the setting will need to attend training to support an inclusive approach is Supporting Staff Supporting Children.

    Monitoring and review process
    The setting SENCo needs to make a note of the agreed period of funding and be aware of the date to send funding review form.

    Please note that the setting will need to provide a summary of progress and intervention outcomes for the review.