Glossary
High needs funding
Additional funding for students with significant special educational needs or disabilities, built from place funding and local authority top-up.
In full
High needs funding combines core programme funding, an element of place funding, and a top-up from the student's home local authority that reflects their assessed additional costs.
The top-up is agreed with the local authority rather than calculated by formula, which makes the relationship with the authority, and the evidence behind the agreement, central.
Where this comes up
scenario
A high needs student starts before the top-up is agreed
A student with significant needs starts in September. The local authority top-up has not been agreed by December.
module
Learning support: the evidence chain from need to claim
Need assessed, support delivered, cost recorded, claim made. Every link has to hold, and a gap anywhere makes the claim indefensible however genuine the support was.
scenario
A student needs maths but nothing shows it
A 16 to 19 student without a qualifying maths grade is studying maths, but the record does not show it.
diagnostic
An aim is on the ILR but generates no funding
The aim validates and appears on the ILR, but generates no earnings. Validation and funding are different tests: a record can be perfectly valid and still not qualify for funding.
module
From a learner walking in to funding arriving
The full chain: a learner event, the operational action it triggers, the source data it creates, the ILR fields it populates, validation, funding, reports, evidence, performance and audit.
scenario
Hours are planned to reach a band rather than to deliver a programme
A programme is designed with just enough hours to reach a higher funding band. Is that legitimate?