Guidance: High needs funding arrangements: 2019 to 2020

Updated: We've amended the information about the place change notification process enquiry window, which closed on 8 February 2019.

Operational guide

This guide describes how the 2019 to 2020 high needs funding system will work for all types of provision. It provides key dates and activity for the delivery of 2019 to 2020 high needs funding and sets out changes from the 2018 to 2019 funding arrangements.

The guide also includes information on funding arrangements for alternative provision, which was previously covered in separate guidance, and expands on the arrangements for top-up funding.

The national funding formula tables for 2019 to 2020 were published in July, including provisional high needs allocations for local authorities for 2019 to 2020.

New funding to support children with special educational needs

On 16 December, Education Secretary Damian Hinds announced an additional £250 million of funding for high needs, across the two financial years 2018 to 2019, and 2019 to 2020.

We’ve increased the high needs block of the dedicated schools grant (DSG) by:

£125 million for 2018 to 2019 £125 million for 2019 to 2020

We’ve allocated the additional funding on the basis of Office for National Statistics projections for the 2 to 18 year old population in each local authority.

The high needs additional funding data gives details of the additional £250m of high needs funding allocated to local authorities over two years.

High needs place change notification process

Local authorities were invited to submit changes to 2019 to 2020 high needs place numbers in ESFA funded institutions by 16 November 2018. The outcomes from this process are now available in the high needs place change request outcomes 2019 to 2020 workbook.

Access the high needs place change request outcomes 2019 to 2020 workbook to find information on all institutions for which local authorities submitted a return to change high needs place numbers. The individual outcomes have been determined in line with the principles set out in high needs place change notification process: technical note 2019 to 2020.

Place change outcomes will inform the funded place numbers for the 2019 to 2020 academic year in academies, free schools, further education (FE) colleges and independent learning providers.

If an institution is not listed in the workbook, this means that no local authority change request was submitted for that institution and the published 2018 to 2019 place numbers will be used as the basis of the 2019 to 2020 allocation.

Local authorities, academies, free schools and FE institutions were able to query the place numbers within the enquiry window, which closed on 8 February 2019.

Special free schools place funding: 2019 to 2020

The guidance on special free schools explains how place funding for these schools will be managed from 2019 to 2020. It explains how these schools will be included in the place change notification process and high needs national funding formula, and what local authorities should consider for 2019 to 2020.

2017 to 2018 high needs student numbers recorded in the ILR and school census

The data file, 2017 to 2018 high needs student numbers recorded in the ILR and school census, is provided to inform local discussion about commissioning arrangements for 2019 to 2020.

It presents the actual number of high needs students at institutions recorded in the academic year 2017 to 2018 ILR R14 data return (updated from 2017/18 R10) and the actual number of pupils in special academies and special free schools recorded in the spring 2018 school census.

The workbook also provides the allocated number of high needs places for the 2017 to 2018 and 2018 to 2019 academic years.

The updated workbook also includes an additional tab containing actual data for special post-16 institutions (SPIs). This data is provided for information purposes only and is included because SPIs return R14 data to ESFA.

Hospital education funding requests

The deadline for hospital education funding requests has now passed.

Hospital education funding: guidance on local authority applications for changes in 2019 to 2020 sets out the process for local authorities wishing to apply for changes to their hospital education funding for 2019 to 2020. This may be a change in funding due to a change in the health care or medical provision in the local authority area.

Further information

You may want to read the schools revenue funding 2019 to 2020: operational guide. You may also want to read the high needs funding 2018 to 2019: operational guide.

We’ve published videos about high needs funding which you might find useful.

We’ve produced the following video for special post-16 institutions who receive high needs funding from ESFA. It’s about your funding arrangements and returning individualised learner record data. It will support you to return your data accurately and on time.

Funding and data returns 2018 to 2019: special post 16 institutions

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/high-needs-funding-arrangements-2019-to-2020

seen at 10:34, 11 February in Publications on GOV.UK.
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