Education Banding Tool

As standard, Formulate for SEND is accessed by local authority staff via a simple online platform provided by Imosphere. This enables a quick and simple means of calculating an estimated amount of top-up funding, which can be particularly helpful whilst the tool is in its pilot phase.

Throughout the development of Formulate for SEND (Education Banding Tool), parent/carer representatives and school/college heads have attended several of our user groups to give their input on the tool.

In addition, we strongly encourage parent/carer representatives and schools/colleges to be invited to project steering groups during local implementations, to ensure they are involved in the process.

For the majority of local authorities, Formulate would be used once an EHC Plan has been drafted, either as a new plan or following a review. At this stage in the EHC process, there should be enough evidence available to record a holistic view of the child or young person’s strengths and challenges in the Needs Profile.

The responses in the Needs Profile will generate an estimated education band and a locally configured amount of top-up funding through Formulate for SEND (Education Banding Tool). This will support decision-making when agreeing the actual top-up funding and provisions to be provided to support the child or young person’s outcomes in the EHC Plan.

Implementation can begin within seven days, enabling the local authority to start logging cases immediately. However, the overall timeline will depend on each local authority’s length of pilot phase, their availability of resources, and their timely completion of essential deliverables.

Formulate for SEND enables you to monitor and track change in need over time, as well as monitoring changes in the estimated and actual levels of top-up funding provided.

This is a local decision, and varies between areas. Most local authorities make a decision on sharing the Needs Profile with schools/colleges and/or parents/carers on a case by case basis, with the tool predominantly being used to support internal decision-making through panels or other decision-making forums.

Formulate for SEND (Education Banding Tool) provides a means of facilitating discussions with schools/colleges and/or parents/carers. The tool gives a starting point for discussing funding amounts, by estimating an amount of top-up funding to support SEND in a fair and consistent way, based on the child or young person’s individual needs and outcomes.

Where there is disagreement over the estimated amount, the first step is to ensure the levels of need recorded in the Needs Profile reflect the child or young person appropriately. In this way, the Needs Profile also acts as an evidence base for challenges to decisions where needs may not have been reflected appropriately. However, the tool is only able to provide an estimate, and the actual amount of top-up funding provided may be different for a number of reasons.

Where the tool estimates a different level of top-up funding to support a child or young person’s needs than is currently provided, following agreement with the school/college, most local authorities have opted to either gradually reduce or increase the top-up funding provided as needed, to ensure the child or young person’s outcomes are met. Alternatively, some local authorities have opted to continue to provide the previously agreed level of top-up funding where this is meeting the child or young person’s outcomes appropriately.

Some local authorities have chosen to implement Formulate for SEND (Education Banding Tool) through a phased or ‘soft’ implementation, generating a band and estimated level of top-up funding for new cases only at first. Others have opted to undertake longer pilot phases, to ensure the tool generates the appropriate band and estimated top-up funding amount for existing cases, before agreeing a go-live date to use the tool for all cases.

It’s essential that we’re provided with a day-to-day contact to liaise with throughout the project, who will manage the implementation of the project locally, such as a project manager. In addition, the local authority should arrange a project steering group to be attended by key stakeholders and decision makers at various points throughout the project. Finally, members of the EHC team will be required at points during the project to support with data collection/testing, and/or to submit cases as part of a pilot phase.

The Needs Profile (which informs the tool’s calculations), would be completed by members of the local authority’s EHC team. The scoring of the Needs Profile should be based on the evidence of the child or young person’s SEND in the EHC Plan, provided by various EHC professionals.