Graduated Response

Many children and young people who have special educational needs may also have a disability. The Equality Act 2010 defines disability as ’…a physical or mental impairment which has a long term and substantial adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day to day activities’.  In this context ‘long term’ means over a year and ‘substantial’ means ‘more than minor or trivial’.  This definition includes long term health conditions such as asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, cancer and sensory impairments.  Many children and young people who have these medical/health conditions will not have special educational needs and their safe and full access to learning and progress will be covered by the duties set out in The Equality Act, including the requirement on all public bodies to make reasonable adjustments.

Whilst the needs of almost all children in a mainstream school can be met through the school budget, there may be a small number of children whose needs are so complex that additional funding is allocated to support them on an individual basis. 

In these cases, the school can apply for Exceptional Needs Funding at Cluster meetings. The Cluster can support the request for additional funding for those children identified as having Exceptional Needs that attend mainstream schools; academies; and private, voluntary and independent preschool settings.

Requests can be made outside of the EHC assessment process, or alongside EHC assessments, where a school has determined that they require additional support that cannot be met from within their own resources.

Requests for Exceptional Circumstances Funding should be made to Linda Orr, who will convene a Panel consisting of a Head Teacher representative, School Improvements Officer and School Finance Officer to discuss and consider the request.

Meeting the Needs of the Pupils

• Ordinarily available check list for SENCO's 01.2022
• Ordinarily available and graduated response PVI and Early Years 01.2022

Exceptional Needs Funding Guide

• Exceptional Needs Funding Guide: V2 
• Exception Needs Funding Process Flowchart
• Pictorialgram - Cluster Moderation
• Wokingham Cluster Moderation Meetings
• Borough Wide Moderation 

• 2015 Update to ENF Guide 

• ENF Finance Explained

• ENF FAQs

Exceptional Needs Funding Forms

New funding requests for under £2k can be approved by Cluster.

Cases are required to have funding approved by Borough when:

• A request is for over £2k at any point
• A case where the running total goes over £2k for ANY 3 terms (regardless of academic/financial year), e.g.: Autumn 2016 request for £1500 for 2 terms followed by continuation request for £1000 for 1 term (total of £2500 for 3 terms ) must go to borough
   
• Form 1 ENF Case Application: V3 Nov 2016
• Form 2 - Exceptional Circumstances Funding Application 
• Form 3 - Report to Borough Moderation 
• Form 5 - Monitoring & Continuation Case Report to Cluster: V3 Nov 2016

Case Examples

• ENF LD Example
• ENF PD-HI Example 
• ENF SEMH Example

Other Examples

Approaching Adulthood - This is an easy read guide about Approaching Adulthood for young people between 14 and 25 years old.  It explains the help that is available to young people as they move towards becoming an adult.  The guide is for:

• Young people who have learning disabilities
• As well as an Educational Health and Care Plan (EHCP)
• It is also for young people with physical disabilities
• Those who are at a specialist school such as Addington
• It can help young people who have been in the youth justice system, or young carers who need support.
• It is helpful too for young people who have been having support from Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS)