What you need to know to calculate your SEN budget  

For local authorities that estimate the special educational needs budget, how can schools help with this calculation?

The SEND and alternative provision green paper, published in March 2022, outlines special educational needs (SEN) as a core role of mainstream schools in the future. In order to fulfil this role effectively schools need funding to support staff and students. 

Schools and academies are notified of an estimated SEN budget, which sits in their overall budget, to be used towards the costs of providing special education provisions to relevant pupils. It is the task of the local authorities to calculate the estimated budget, which they can do by using their local mainstream schools funding formula factors. 

How the SEN budget is calculated

Most local authorities will calculate the estimated budget by using a combination of funding from the basic entitlement factor, the deprivation factor and the low prior attainment factors in their local funding formulas. Depending on how the local formula is composed, and the overall weighting of the different formula factors, the calculation of the SEN budget is likely to include:

• a small part of the basic entitlement funding;
• a larger part of deprivation finding that reflects the higher prevalence of lower-level SEN amongst disadvantaged pupils; 
• the majority or whole of the low prior attainment factor funding (this is the best representation of pupils with low-cost, high-incidence SEN). 

What you need to do

To help your local authority determine this budget, schools and academies are expected to: 

• meet the costs of special educational provision for pupils identified as needing SEN support in accordance with the SEND Code of Practice;
• contribute towards the costs of special educational needs provision for pupils with high needs up to the high needs cost threshold set by the regulation (this is currently £6,000 per pupil annum).

All schools are expected to make reasonable adjustments for pupils with disabilities, in accordance with the Equality Act 2010, whether or not they have SEN pupils. Where an adjustment is special educational provision, the revenue cost of that adjustment may be met from the school’s SEN budget.

To decide this, schools have a duty to designate a teacher to be the SEN co-ordinator (SENCo) and, with them, to decide what to spend on SEN support and provision. The SENCo will be aware of the school’s estimated SEN budget.

It is important to note that the notional SEN budget is not intended to provide £6,000 for every pupil with SEN, as most such pupils’ support will cost less than this. The estimated SEN budget is not intended to provide a specific amount per pupil for those with lower additional support costs, even though the local authority may make reasonable assumptions about what those costs might be for the purpose of ensuring that their schools’ estimated SEN budget calculation is realistic.