How much funding a school or education setting gets for SEN support and how that funding is provided depends on the type of school.
Mainstream schools
Mainstream schools are funded based on how many pupils they have. This is called 'element 1' funding.
They get extra funding for pupils with additional needs. This is called 'element 2' funding.
The school can apply to us for additional funding for pupils with more complex needs. This is called 'element 3' or 'top up' funding.
Special schools and educational settings
Special schools aren't funded in the same way as mainstream schools. Instead, they get £10,000 for each place that the council needs.
GOV.UK has more information on high needs funding arrangements for 2022 to 2023.
In addition to this, the Government has awarded a capital grant to invest in the size and quality of special school buildings. The default SEND Grant Provision Plan (109 KB) demonstrates how funds have been allocated in a capital plan.
Schools use their SEN funding to pay for things like:
- specialist resources and equipment, including simple auxiliary aids, such as a pen grip to additional specialist software that supports spelling
- one-to-one and small group learning support
- extra support in the classroom
- employing additional specialist support staff
- professional advice, for example from educational psychologists or speech and language therapists
Find out how a school uses their SEN funding
You can ask your child's school:
- how it uses its SEN budget to support your child
- whether it has enough to make all the provision they need
The SEN Information Report on the school's website has information about the school's arrangements for SEN support and how to contact the SENCO.
You can find a school's website on the GOV.UK Schools finder.
If your child has more complex SEN needs and requires specialist help to make sure they can make progress in school, their school or education setting can ask us for additional 'top up' funding. This is called 'element 3' funding and comes from our 'high needs block', which is allocated to us by central government.
The school or education setting must use it to provide support for the pupil that the funding is for.
Types of specialist support can include:
- access to the Bristol Autism Team, Sensory Support Service or Educational Psychology Services
- therapeutic interventions
- highly specialised resources, such as social communication and interaction groups, specialised speech and language therapy or ICT modifications
If you feel your child would benefit from top up funding, you should speak to your school's SENCO.
Read our pdf Investing in our 'high needs' young people report (519 KB) from September 2018.
There is also an pdf Easy read version of Investing in our 'high needs' young people report (2.11 MB) .
