Funding for pupils with SEN

Get to grips with how provision for pupils with special educational needs (SEN) is funded in your school.

Last reviewed on 16 December 2022
See updates
School types: All · School phases: All
Ref: 4735
Contents
  1. Mainstream schools: you'll receive funding in 2 main ways
  2. Funding for pupils in SEN units and resourced provision
  3. Special schools and alternative provision (AP): how you'll receive funding
  4. Personal budgets for pupils with EHC plans

Mainstream schools: you'll receive funding in 2 main ways

1. Your budget or core funding

As a mainstream maintained school, academy or free school, your school receives resources to support its pupils with special educational needs (SEN) through its main budget, or core funding - this is known as your 'notional SEN budget'. 

Your school’s budget is calculated through the national funding formula (NFF). For 2022-23, your local authority (LA) will use its own local funding formula to determine the actual allocation for its schools. It will use factors such as ‘deprivation’ and ‘low prior attainment’ to account for pupils with high needs in your school. 

LAs to use only NFF factors (and all of them) in their local formulae  All local formulae factors to move at least 10% closer to the NFF (unless a local formula is already mirroring