EYSENDIF

A maximum fund of £ 100k has been identified for EYSENDIF per year from 2022-2023. This will be reviewed annually. Each funding year runs from 1 April – 31 March.

If early years providers have put into place all of the ‘ordinarily available/level 1’, and followed Warrington’s graduated approach pathway level 1, 2, 3 and 4, and the child is not yet meeting their milestones and the gap between them and their peers is widening, the setting can apply to the EYSEND inclusion panel for additional support to improve outcomes for the child.

Applications will be considered each month by the Inclusion Panel, consisting of a range of professionals. These include a representative from a private and voluntary early years setting and School nursery, Health, Sandy lane outreach, Speech and language and the sensory team.  If a professional on the panel is working with the child they may still be part of the decision-making, although they must use only the information on the application to inform their decision for the inclusion funding.

Information is sent securely to the LA through a MARS and with parents’ consent. Panel members will read the information prior to the panel to familiarise themselves with it and prepare any comments/decisions for the panel.

Early help notifications provided from a health professional also come to the panel. For some children it may be clear from an early age they need additional support, or already have a developmental delay. Health services have a duty to information the local authority. This is to ensure support can be put into place for the child, for example Portage or early help support.

The following information must be provided by the early years setting to support the request for Early years SEND inclusion funding:

•             Multi Agency Request for a Service (MARS form)

*For the purpose of early year’s special educational needs and disability inclusion funding, applicants should complete page 1- 5 only.  However, all relevant pages should be completed to highlight additional concerns beyond Inclusion Funding. Parental agreement is essential, and as the MARS is an online form, a copy can be printed for parents to sign, to be submitted electronically, along with attachments of supporting evidence to the local authority.  Alternatively, the setting may keep the signed copy in the setting’s personal files and email the multi-agency referral form (MARS), stating that the setting has a hard copy signed by the parent.

•             EYSENDIF request form please see appendix 5.

•             Personal plans and aspiration page which demonstrate joined-up planning and target setting with parents and professionals, please see appendix 2 and 3.

•             Evidence of external advice being actioned e.g. reports, assessment and activity sheets.

•             Evidence that shows the impact of emerging SEND on child’s learning, e.g. most recent summative assessment, please see appendix 6.

•             Clear information how the funding will be spent using the Provision map Appendix 7

•             EYSENDIF checklist see appendix 8.

The paperwork should be completed in full. Incomplete, insufficient or generalised information will be returned to the setting and may delay any award of funding. 

The following information must be provided by the early years setting to support the request for Early years SEND inclusion funding:

•             Multi Agency Request for a Service (MARS form) https://www.warrington.gov.uk/download/downloads/id/14444/multi-agency_request_for_services_mars_form.pdf).

*For the purpose of early year’s special educational needs and disability inclusion funding, applicants should complete page 1- 5 only.  However, all relevant pages should be completed to highlight additional concerns beyond Inclusion Funding. Parental agreement is essential, and as the MARS is an online form, a copy can be printed for parents to sign, to be submitted electronically, along with attachments of supporting evidence to the local authority.  Alternatively, the setting may keep the signed copy in the setting’s personal files and email the multi-agency referral form (MARS), stating that the setting has a hard copy signed by the parent.

•             EYSENDIF request form please see appendix 5.

•             Personal plans and aspiration page which demonstrate joined-up planning and target setting with parents and professionals, please see appendix 2 and 3.

•             Evidence of external advice being actioned e.g. reports, assessment and activity sheets.

•             Evidence that shows the impact of emerging SEND on child’s learning, e.g. most recent summative assessment, please see appendix 6.

•             Clear information how the funding will be spent using the Provision map Appendix 7

•             EYSENDIF checklist see appendix 8.

The paperwork should be completed in full. Incomplete, insufficient or generalised information will be returned to the setting and may delay any award of funding.

The funding is available for settings that are providing funded educational places for 2, 3 and 4 year olds including:

• Private, voluntary and independent early years settings
• Maintained Nursery Schools and Classes
• Childminders

Requests must come from the early years setting that the child attends. If a child attends more than one setting for their early education entitlement, both settings may apply as the funding arrangements are designed to complement Warrington’s 30 hour offer partnership approach.   

• Children aged 2-4 years old identified as having an emerging additional / special educational need who are receiving free early years education.

• Children for whom a setting is implementing support and intervention strategies additional to or different from, what is normally provided by good quality teaching and differentiation to other children of the same age.

• Children for whom professional advice has been sought and specialist interventions recommended. This includes advice from speech and language therapy services, the Child Development Centre, Occupational Therapist, or Physiotherapist and early years educational staff e.g. Specialist teachers, Early Years Specialists.

The funding is intended to support early year’s settings with early intervention to address emerging needs and to set up support for individual children.

Examples include:

• A setting may need initial support to provide smaller groups/higher staff ratio at certain times or for certain activities.
• A setting may want to set up targeted small group language activities to support the needs of an identified child or access further training.
• A setting may need to buy equipment or resources to meet the specific needs of an individual, which are different from or additional to generally available resources.

The support and interventions must be closely linked to outcomes for the child agreed by parents, the setting and professionals involved with the child. This would be evident in targeted support plans.

We cannot fund resources that should be part of a setting’s everyday provision. The funding should be used to improve outcomes for the child.

A minimum one-off payment can be allocated for resources or training. There is no maximum time period for which a child can be funded, however termly reviews of funding provides settings and the panel the opportunity to review individual awards.   The funding is to improve outcomes and encourage independence. When funding is allocated the aim is to improve outcomes, so that in the future funding/support will be needed at a lower level.

The following information must be provided by the early years setting to support the request:

• Multi Agency Request for a Service (MARS form) 

*For the purpose of early year’s special educational needs and disability inclusion funding, applicants should complete page 1- 5 only.  However, all relevant pages should be completed to highlight additional concerns beyond Inclusion Funding. Parental agreement is essential, and as the MARS is an online form, a copy can be printed for parents to sign, to be submitted electronically, along with attachments of supporting evidence to the local authority.  Alternatively, the setting may keep the signed copy in the setting’s personal files and email the multi-agency referral form (MARS), stating that the setting has a hard copy signed by the parent.

• EYSENDIF request form please see appendix 5.
• Personal plans and aspiration page which demonstrate joined-up planning and target setting with parents and professionals, please see appendix 2 and 3.
• Evidence of external advice being actioned e.g. reports, assessment and activity sheets.
• Evidence that shows the impact of emerging SEND on child’s learning, e.g. most recent summative assessment, please see appendix 6.
• Clear information how the funding will be spent using the Provision map Appendix 7
• EYSENDIF checklist see appendix 8.

The paperwork should be completed in full. Incomplete, insufficient or generalised information will be returned to the setting and may delay any award of funding. Please see appendix 8 for tick list. Fortnightly surgeries will also be available from February 2019 to support with the early years special educational needs inclusion funding (EYSENDIF) application.

Each individual application will be considered on merit. It is very important that the application is completed fully and accurately. All applications are presented to a panel for a decision on their suitability. To help settings in planning requests, listed below are some factors for which funding will not be awarded:

• For 1:1 staffing for a specific child. (When inclusion support is considered, children should be in small groups rather than supported individually).
• Where inclusion is not the primary purpose of the application.
• Where funding is requested retrospectively
• For non-specialised resources that should be part of a setting’s general provision
• For activities that should form part of a setting’s normal provision
• Responses may also be delayed, if the application form is incomplete or difficult to read.
• There is no evidence of a developmental delay/SEND.

If an application is not successful, guidance will be given to the setting and an explanation of any reasons why; this may include signposting to other services.

Settings will need to monitor the effectiveness of the interventions and provide a termly update to the Termly review panel (see appendix 9).  If there is a change in circumstance or concern, this will be reported back to the panel and the funding reviewed.

The termly reviews for 2019 are as follows:

• 26^th February (submission date 12^th February)
• 18^th June (submission date 4^th June)
• 19^th November (submission date 5^th November)

It is the setting’s responsibility to inform the panel if a child leaves a setting or if they are awarded an Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP), at which point the early year’s special educational needs inclusion funding will cease. If the panel does not receive review paperwork for a child at the termly review they will assume it is no longer needed.