Funding for special educational needs and disabilities in school settings
Most children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) will have the support that they need from within the school or educational setting’s budgets.
There are 3 levels of education support for children and young people with SEND. These are called elements of funding by the government.
Element 1 funding
This is core funding given to education settings for every child or young person and pays for basic costs like school buildings and class teachers.
Element 2 funding
Also known as delegated funding, this is for children with additional needs and SEND, for early intervention, support and special equipment. Mainstream schools and colleges can spend up to £6,000 on each child with additional needs.
Element 3 funding
Also known as high needs funding or top-up funding, this is for students with SEND who require more support than what Element 2 can offer.
Funding for Education, Health, and Care (EHC) plans
An Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan will describe the level of support a child or young person needs, and the funding that is required to provide this. This money is allocated to the school to provide the specific support that the individual needs e.g. small group or individual support, therapeutic intervention, specialist equipment.
Top-up funding
High needs funding
This is also known as top-up funding, and it's for children and young people with more complex educational needs within an educational setting. This funding is for any extra provision they may need, such as health therapies, family support or extra teaching support. It's often requested through their EHC plan.
The high needs funding is for children and young people who live in the borough of Camden, wherever they go to school. If they attend a Camden school but live in another borough, their home local authority will provide this support.
Early years top-up funding
For children aged 0 to 5 in early years settings, such as nurseries, we employ specialist teachers to meet more complex needs without having to request an EHC needs assessment. Some children may need more support than is ordinarily available, so the setting would apply for extra funding:
- Camden Local Inclusion Fund (CLIF) to help fund additional staff to support individual children
- Disability Access Funding (DAF) to make reasonable adjustments within their provision to support children in receipt of child disability living allowance (DLA)
Mainstream schools top-up funding
Our mainstream schools can provide provision up to £6,000 from their own budget for any child, whether they live in Camden or another borough.
Our mainstream schools can provide provision up to £11,000 for children who live in the borough.
Schools publish how they spend this money in their SEN Information Report.
Exceptional Need Grants (ENG)
Exceptional Needs Grants (ENG) are for children and young people who live in Camden, attend one of our mainstream primary or secondary schools and need exceptional support. This means their needs cannot be met within the funding included in their budgets (such as through elements 1 or 2, or high needs funding).
An ENG provides the same as the funding we provide for children who have an EHC plan. The ENG application process is faster and easier than the EHC plan application process.
Schools can apply for an ENG with parent or carer consent. Our Cluster Inclusion Forums, made up of SENCos, SEN officers, educational psychologists, and Early Help managers, meet each half-term to consider ENG requests.
Special schools funding
Special schools are funded in a different way to mainstream schools. We pay for an agreed number of places in Camden maintained special schools, with an additional top-up amount paid by the local authority they live in. Top-up is also payable where children are placed in special schools maintained by other authorities, or for fees for independent or non-maintained special schools.
Further education funding
Many young people who received additional support in school find that they no longer need the same level of extra help when they attend further education, such as college.
However, if the further education setting has tried to support the young person but they need additional funding to do so, they can request support from us.
Higher education funding
Higher education settings, such as universities, have their own funding arrangements for young people needing additional support.
Young people attending university may be eligible for different types of financial support. Find out more in our money advice.
More information
You can find more information about funding from: