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<p>Local authorities are required to provide mainstream schools with sufficient funds
to enable them to meet the additional cost of pupils with special educational needs
and disabilities, up to the value of £6,000. This funding comes from the schools block
of the dedicated schools grant. While authorities will identify a notional special
educational needs (SEN) budget for each school within the school’s overall budget,
that notional budget is not ring-fenced, and schools are expected to manage their
overall budget to best meet the needs of all their pupils, including pupils with SEN.</p><p>When
the costs of additional support required for a pupil with SEN exceed £6,000, the local
authority should also allocate additional top-up funding to cover the excess costs.
This top-up funding, and all funding for special schools comes from the local authority’s
high needs budget. In December 2018, we announced an additional £250 million in high
needs funding across the current financial year and the next, bringing Barnsley’s
total high needs funding to £22.2 million in 2018-19.</p><p>The schools and high needs
allocations for Barnsley since 2014-15 are as follows:</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Year</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Schools</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>High
needs</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2014-15</p></td><td><p>£126.9 million</p></td><td><p>£18.4
million</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2015-16</p></td><td><p>£132.1 million</p></td><td><p>£18.4
million</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2016-17</p></td><td><p>£133.7 million</p></td><td><p>£18.9
million</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2017-18</p></td><td><p>£137.4 million</p></td><td><p>£21.5
million</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2018-19</p></td><td><p>£142.9 million</p></td><td><p>£22.2
million</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p> </p><p>As funding for special needs
in mainstream schools’ budgets is not ring-fenced, the information on how much top-up
funding Barnsley Council has allocated to the schools in Barnsley is not held centrally.
It is not possible to provide a meaningful comparison of the average allocation for
special needs provision in schools in Barnsley and England.</p><p>However, it is possible
for Barnsley Council to compare their high needs spending with that of other local
authorities using our high needs benchmarking tool which can be found here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/high-needs-strategic-planning-fund"
target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/high-needs-strategic-planning-fund</a>.</p><p>
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