SEN Contingency 2012-2013

Mainstream SEN Contingency

SEN contingency panel results:

• 15 January 2013
• 23 October 2012

The SEN Contingency fund is a sum of money put aside to cater for unforeseen and exceptional SEN that may arise in mainstream nursery, primary and secondary schools. Schools must use the pro forma to apply for this funding and all such bids are considered by a panel of headteachers. The panel meets twice a year to decide which pupils can be supported.  If there is not enough funding to grant all the successful bids in full, then bids will be scaled down as appropriate.

The deadline for application is usually eight days before each meeting to give time for paperwork to be collated and sent to the panel who can then study each case in advance.

The most common type of successful bid is where a pupil with special needs has recently joined a school, or a special need has recently arisen in some other way, and although statutory assessment has been applied for the child needs support in the meantime.  

The panel usually rejects applications for children who have joined the school before the current financial year unless an unforeseen need has arisen, because the school could have budgeted for the cost in the the current year. 

Applications will generally be rejected for the following reasons:

• not exceptional - the case was not as needy as some others that had been applied for
• not highest priority – if there had been more money to allocate they may have been eligible.

We welcome offers from headteachers to sit on the panel. Please contact Mark Callaghan on 020 8359 7816 if you might be available. We always need extra headteachers because sometimes panel members have to drop out if they have put in an application for their own school.

Exceptional Additional Special Education Needs (EASEN)

In recent years the number of very complex needs being met in special schools and resourced mainstream schools has increased. In some exceptional circumstances of individual pupil need, additional support has been funded to ensure the safety of an individual pupil or of other pupils in the school, for instance during a transition period. 

The Schools Forum agreed to this funding being identified and ring-fenced and subject to decisions of an Exceptional Additional SEN Funding Panel meeting each term to agree funding for the next term.

As with the SEN Contingency Panel we welcome offers from headteachers of the special and resourced mainstream schools to sit on the termly panel. Please contact Mark Callaghan (020 8359 7816) if you can help.