JS/SEND/31.08.17

UNDERSTANDING THE SEND RESOURCE ALLOCATION SYSTEM

Background and Context

In line with the SEND Code of Practice 2015and the Children and Families Act 2014 Gloucestershire County Council is committed to being more transparent, accountable and open in all our processes and decision making and to work in co-production with settings, other services and families. As part of this commitment, we have developed a new system to allocate resources from our high needs fund for children/young people with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs).

Initial work on the Resource Allocation System (RAS) began in 2012 and this continued until the end of 2015 led by Jane Shotbolt, SEND Personalisation Officer and co-produced with Advisory Teachers, Educational Psychologists, parents/carers, Primary and Secondary SENDCos, Primary School Head Teachers, SEND caseworkers, Early Years SEND staff, SEND Monitoring Officers, Speech and Language Therapists and Special School Head Teachers.

What is the Resource Allocation System?

The RASallocates an indicative resource to support children/young people with EHCPs who require high needs funding to achieve their outcomes and to enable the settings to deliver the provision set out in the plan. The tool is holistic, outcome focused and transparent; it identifies a number of generic outcomes specific to the individual child and then details the varying difficulties experienced that may prevent the outcome being achieved. Lastly, it allocates an indicative resource in monetary terms to achieve outcomes on the EHCP. Once the EHCP has been finalised, the actual provision will be noted on the Plan and not the monetary value.

There are three versions of the RAS, 0-5 years, 6-16 years and 16 years+ to allow language to reflect the ages of the children/young people and to acknowledge the differing impact the difficulties may have on various age ranges.

Efficacy of the RAS

The RAS has undergone extensive testing and final modifications over the last 18 months and evidence shows that it is now fit for purpose and allocates a realistic indicative resource. During the last three months of testing (to July 2017), the indicative resource was sufficient to achieve outcomes and deliver the provision set out in the plans in 94% of all cases. The remaining 6% cases were taken to SEND Resource Panel for a decision regarding the final allocation. The processes supporting implementation of the RAS have also been developed and tested to ensure they fit into existing systems effectively and are ready to be put into practice.

SEND Casework staff have received significant levels of support and training to ensure that scoring is consistent and equitable and that staff are confident and competent in this area. We also have an ongoing audit function in place to ensure quality standards and consistency are maintained.

Primary and Secondary school SENDCos attended bite sized sessions delivered in Summer Term 2017 to explain the RAS and the new processes supporting it. These sessions will be offered again in the late Autumn Term for those settings that have not yet attended.

Completing the RAS

Following the decision by Gloucestershire County Council (GCC) to assess for EHCP, and the Lead SEND Coordinator has agreed an EHCP is likely to be required based on the reports/information received, the RAS is completed by the Case Coordinator (within SEND Service)as part of the assessment process. All scores must be evidenced from the reports/information received from the various practitioners involved in the EHC assessment. It is important to note that before scoring any difficulties, consideration is given to whether the child/young person is achieving the outcome or not. If they are achieving the outcome, then no score will be given. If they are not achieving the outcome, then consideration is given to which difficulties they are experiencing and to what degree.

The RAS score is checked by the Lead SEND Coordinator and an indicative resource is allocated.The Case Coordinator informs the setting of the indicative resource prior to the Team Around Child (TAC) meeting and it is expected that the TAC will agree in principle how to best achieve the outcomes in the EHCP using all available resources, including the setting’s own delegated resources and the indicative resource.

If the indicative resource is less than £6,000 (including Level 2 funding) then all available reports and information are considered to determine whether EHCP is required or whether the needs can continue to be met at SEN Support. It is important to note that the RAS is one part of the decision making process and the RAS alone does not determine whether an EHCP is required. The final decision regarding whether to issue an EHCP or not is made by the Local Authority, with advice from the SEND Resource Panel.

If the indicative resource is more than £6,000 and less than £10,363 (including Level 2 funding) and the TAC agree provision within this amount, the draft EHCP does not need to be presented at SEND Resource Panel. The Lead SEND Coordinator can agree the Plan and the SEND Team Manager can sign off the resource and EHCP.

If the indicative resource is more than £10,363 (including Level 2 funding), the TAC should still agree the provision to be put in place and the case will then be presented at SEND Resource Panel for consideration and agreement as usual.

The RAS will be rescored at key stages throughout a child/young person’s education. At present it is anticipated this will be done around key stage changes and a working party will be established in January 2018 to take this work forward, with systems etc to be in place by September 2018.

Challenge to the RAS

If necessary, the TAC meeting can look through the RAS and offer any new information/reports to evidence the level of difficulties experienced or challenge scores based on existing information. The Case Coordinator will then rescore the RAS and the Lead SEND Coordinator will allocate a new indicative resource if required.

If the RAS has been scored correctly but the TAC agree, as a collective, that the indicative resource is insufficient to achieve the agreed outcomes, then they should discuss the rationale for additional resource and put a case together based on this. The Case Coordinator will then take the case to SEND Panel for a decision.

If you have any queries regarding any of the content of this document, please contact either your Lead SEND Coordinator or Jane Shotbolt, Personalisation Officer ()