Page 20 - SEN114 September/October 2021

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Special needs postcode funding gap identified
A new report has warned that there is a “continuing and considerable inequity” in the levels of special needs funding for schools going to different parts of the country. The research, carried out by Dr Peter Gray, Dr Alan Marsh, Dr Peter Gray and Professor Brahm Norwich from the University of Exeter, commissioned by the national SEN Policy Research Forum, has determined that the significant differences in the budgets given to local areas to fund high special educational needs are largely the result of historical spending arrangements.
More worryingly, it found that the difference between the highest and lowest funded authorities had widened this year. Authorities that were relatively well-funded historically tended to have a higher percentage of pupils in special schools or resource bases.
It found that although areas with higher levels of need tended to get more money, there is considerable variation across the country, with significant differences in the public funding for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) between areas with similar levels of need.
This means one area with similar social disadvantage can get nearly twice as much as another, and some of the highest funded authorities are ones that have a relatively lower level of need.
The significant variation in the level of High Needs Block (HNB) budget allocations to English local authorities ranged from £798 per 2-18 year-old resident to £365, with an average of £527.
Report author Dr Peter Gray said: “The Government has put more money into high needs over the last three years but has not taken the opportunity to address these inequities properly.”
The paper adds: “Despite the aspirations of the National Funding Formula to move to a fairer distribution, variation was still largely determined by history.”
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