However, the number of Statutory Assessment requests from parents has increased over the same period. Schools identified that the drivers of parental concerns were regarding transition to secondary school, access to some therapy services and wanting a specialist school placement. Schools felt that parents need to be confident that their special child’s educational needs will be met by any mainstream school without the need for Statutory Assessment or a specialist placement and that they fully understand what benefits an EHCP can and to their provision. can’t bring child’s The majority of children being issued an EHCP in primary schools remain in mainstream schools. Therefore, Kent needs to ensure mainstream schools have access to appropriate whole school training and specialist advice/ support to enable them to use their to provide the most ‘best endeavours’ appropriate provision and meet the SEN Outcomes of these children and any others with severe and complex needs. The Distribution of HNF Kent is committed to ensuring that high needs funding is appropriately allocated to support the delivery of the more expensive provision for the children with the highest level of need. Schools also stated that they want the system to be as fair and equitable as possible and to hold all schools accountable for the use of this element of public funds. High needs funding needs to be specific to the provision required to meet the needs of individual children. The staffing of this provision should be with regard to the Educational Endowment Foundation guidance on the use of Teaching Assistants. The Use of HNF Schools identified variations in how they utilise their normally available resource before requesting top up funding. Therefore, Kent needs to be clearer as to what is meant by normally available resource and quality first teaching (QFT) and how this underpins the criteria for HNF. Schools cited planning using the and in ‘assess, plan, do review’ cycle partnership with parents and pupil, as paramount to effective provision. The class teacher provision mapping to plan SEN provision and monitoring the was also identified as an essential element to good practice. pupil’s progress Application Process The application form has evolved over the last two years in response to feedback from schools but schools felt that it still can be time consuming to complete and requires the duplication of information on personalised/ provision plans. Schools also wanted to be able to fully utilise the pre-existing
However, the number of Statutory Assessment requests from parents has increased over the same period. Schools identified that the drivers of parental concerns were regarding transition to secondary school, access to some therapy services and wanting a specialist school placement. Schools felt that parents need to be confident that their child’s special educational needs will be met by any mainstream school without the need for Statutory Assessment or a specialist placement and that they fully understand what benefits an EHCP can and can’t bring to their child’s provision. The majority of children being issued an EHCP in primary schools remain in mainstream schools. Therefore, Kent needs to ensure mainstream schools have access to appropriate whole school training and specialist advice/ support to enable them to use their ‘best endeavours’ to provide the most appropriate provision and meet the SEN Outcomes of these children and any others with severe and complex needs. The Distribution of HNF Kent is committed to ensuring that high needs funding is appropriately allocated to support the delivery of the more expensive provision for the children with the highest level of need. Schools also stated that they want the system to be as fair and equitable as possible and to hold all schools accountable for the use of this element of public funds. High needs funding needs to be specific to the provision required to meet the needs of individual children. The staffing of this provision should be with regard to the Educational Endowment Foundation guidance on the use of Teaching Assistants. The Use of HNF Schools identified variations in how they utilise their normally available resource before requesting top up funding. Therefore, Kent needs to be clearer as to what is meant by normally available resource and quality first teaching (QFT) and how this underpins the criteria for HNF. Schools cited planning using the ‘assess, plan, do and review’ cycle in partnership with parents and pupil, as paramount to effective provision. The class teacher provision mapping to plan SEN provision and monitoring the pupil’s progress was also identified as an essential element to good practice. Application Process The application form has evolved over the last two years in response to feedback from schools but schools felt that it still can be time consuming to complete and requires the duplication of information on personalised/ provision plans. Schools also wanted to be able to fully utilise the pre-existing
High-Needs-Funding-Review-doc-for-SenCos.docx