Form

Local authority exceptional cases outcomes explanatory note

Updated 17 December 2014

This form was withdrawn on 14 December 2016

This page contains information about 2015 to 2016 academic year. Please visit 2016 to 2017 academic year or 2017 to 2018 academic year page for the latest information.

1. Introduction

This is an explanatory note for local authorities to support the 2015 to 2016 high needs exceptional case process.

We have assessed and moderated all exceptional cases which were submitted to us by the 17 October 2014.

The purpose of this note is to explain to local authorities how we have calculated any adjustments to their high needs block of the dedicated schools grant (DSG) for the financial year 2015 to 2016 as a result of the exceptional case process.

We have published a workbook on GOV.UK showing the outcomes of the exceptional case process for the financial year 2015 to 2016. Within this workbook, we have listed all institutions included in a local authority’s exceptional case and their outcomes for clarity and to support commission processes.

We will be contacting each local authority and institution who submitted a case with further specific feedback regarding their case by 23 January. Due to the high number of exceptional cases we received, it will not be possible to provide detailed and specific feedback on a case-by-case basis before then.

2. Key messages

We have delivered the final high needs block allocations in December this year to provide earlier certainty on budgets for local authorities and institutions in order to support the implementation of the Children and Families Act.

The vast majority of local authorities will receive an increase to their high needs block for the financial year 2015 to 2016. We are providing an additional £47 million of funding which will be distributed across all local authorities, using a methodology based on 2- to 19- year- old population data. This provides a reasonable distribution across local authorities for 2015 to 2016. We have commissioned research and analysis from Isos Partnership, and published a wider call for evidence to help us work out how we might allocate funding more fairly in subsequent years.

We have agreed to fund an additional £7.8 million in places as a result of the 2015 to 2016 exceptions process. £3.2 million will be added to the high needs block with £4.6 million being funded outside of the high needs block directly in post school institutions. The 2015 to 2016 DSG information has now been published on GOV.UK. Local authorities should refer to the “High Needs Block” tab within the DSG allocations workbook for more information on the high needs block.

For those local authorities who made a case we will provide further specific feedback on the reasons for our decisions by Friday 23 January.

No institution will receive a reduction in place funding (unless otherwise agreed with a local authority as part of an infrastructure change)

There have been a large number of exceptional cases.

• generally, elements of a case which were based on actual occupancy in the academic year 2014 to 2015 have been supported
• generally, elements of a case which were based on predictions of occupancy levels in the academic year 2015 to 2016 have not been supported
• where we have supported a case, we have only funded the element of growth above the levels that we said we would be likely to consider as exceptional (as published in Schools revenue funding 2015 to 2016: operational guide) so as not to disadvantage those who have seen growth below these levels and therefore decided not to make a case

We have adopted the principle outlined above in bullet point 2, mindful that at this relatively early stage of the annual cycle of placement decisions, there is a risk that place funding will be committed to institutions where pupils or students ultimately may not attend. This means that there is less funding committed to places and more has been distributed as additional funding using population data, which local authorities can then use to provide additional funding for pupils and students in places that have not been funded, as they wish.

The actual number of places filled in the academic year 2015 to 2016, will be considered within the planning process for the academic year 2016 to 2017. This aligns with our current objective to fund place funding on a lagged basis.

We now consider the exceptional case process complete and we will not consider any new evidence presented by local authorities or institutions at this stage.

Any queries or questions on the process should be sent by Friday 27 February to the appropriate mailbox:

• HighNeeds.Central@education.gsi.gov.uk
• HighNeeds.Northern@education.gsi.gov.uk
• HighNeeds.Southern@education.gsi.gov.uk

Final allocations have now been made, and local authorities are free to provide additional funding for institutions that have all their funded places occupied, as they go on to commission extra places for pupils and students at those institutions in the coming months. This applies equally to all institution types, including those which were outside the scope of the local authority exceptional case process.

High needs places in alternative provision free schools first opened in September 2014 and all special free schools are not included in the DSG allocations this year. These will be paid directly by the EFA. We will publish by end February 2015 a schedule of EFA funded places in each free school to help inform local authority commissioning.

3. Principles of the exceptional cases process

The starting point for high needs funding allocations for the academic year 2015 to 2016 was to roll forward 2014 to 2015 place volumes. We made a commitment that no institution would see their allocation of places in the 2015 to 2016 academic year reduce from their allocation of places in the 2014 to 2015 academic year (unless otherwise agreed with a local authority as part of an infrastructure change). However, there would be a process to consider exceptional cases.

We published the principles for submitting exceptional cases for local authorities, special post-16 institutions (SPI’s) and non-maintained special schools (NMSS) in the Schools revenue funding 2015 to 2016 operational guide and our additional information document in August.

We explained within these documents that an exceptional case is not a request for additional top-up funding. It should only be necessary where there is a serious and detrimental shortfall in the current allocation of places relative to the actual level of occupancy in relevant institutions.

For local authorities we highlighted four significant reasons for submitting a case:

• the actual number of pupils or students occupying high needs places in 2014 to 2015 academic year is significantly higher than the 2015 to 2016 place numbers, either in aggregate at local authority level or for one or more institutions, and this is expected to continue and increase in the 2015 to 2016 academic year
• there is a significant number of new places resulting from infrastructure change (eg new school)
• there is a significant infrastructure change involving high needs places for the 2015 to 2016 academic year, but not an increase in overall numbers eg institution closures, mergers and new institutions; or
• there is a significant change to hospital education provision

We stated that all submissions must:

• confirm the number of pupils or students actually present in the 2014/15 academic year
• explain why rolling over the published 2014/15 academic year place numbers does not provide appropriate provision to meet local need;
• explain why infrastructure changes should be considered as exceptional cases and cannot be funded through a local agreement to vary the number of funded places in different institutions; and, if relevant
• provide details of the significant change to hospital education provision, including a copy of any letter or e-mail from the NHS showing that additional educational provision is required as a result of a change in the medical provision (eg a new children’s ward) or referrals by medical practitioners to such provision

In addition to this we confirmed what we would be likely to consider as an exceptional case.

4. Assessment of local authority cases

Due to the high number of exceptional cases we received, it has not been possible to provide detailed and specific feedback on a case-by-case basis in December so we will provide further specific feedback to local authorities by 23 January 2015. In these communications, we will confirm the outcome of the exceptional case assessment process, with the assessment principle applied to each institution case clearly identified.

In the meantime, the following paragraphs in this section state how we assessed cases and reviewed the evidence within them. These paragraphs can be read in conjunction with the high needs outcomes workbook to enable a local authority to understand why we have supported or not supported a case.

We reviewed the evidence provided within each exceptional case and considered it against our published requirements. When reviewing each case, we considered if the evidence provided at institution level met those requirements, as the evidence provided at institution level underpinned a local authority’s overall case. This meant that at institution level, we formed a view as to whether the evidence provided was sufficient to support an increase in place funding or not.

• generally, elements of a case which were based on actual occupancy in the academic year 2014 to 2015 have been supported
• generally, elements of a case which were based on predictions of occupancy levels in the academic year 2015 to 2016 have not been supported

Following this institution level review, we calculated the total increase in places we would agree to support at local authority level.

• if the total number increase at local authority level was more than 5% of the local authority’s 2015 to 2016 place numbers, then we have agreed to fund the element of growth in institutions which is over and above 5%
• if the total number increase at local authority level was less than 5% of the local authority’s 2015 to 2016 place numbers, then we have agreed to fund the element of growth which is
  • over and above 5 places for institutions with 50 places or less or
  • over and above 10% for institutions with more than 50 places

The only exceptions to this are:

• requests for infrastructure changes, which we have supported/partially supported
• growth in places for new provision, which we have supported/partially supported
• free schools, where the numbers are those funded by the EFA

In these instances, we have agreed to fund all of the additional places requested.

We have only funded growth above the levels that we said we would be likely to consider as exceptional in the local authority operational guidance, so as not to disadvantage those local authorities who did not make a case.

Changes to hospital education provision were considered separately, and we were supported in our review of cases by a panel of hospital education leaders. The emphasis when reviewing the cases was on the evidence provided, supported by a letter from the NHS, of a clear change in hospital education activity as a result of health care commissioning changes (eg a new children’s ward). The outcome of cases for hospital education provision will be sent direct to the relevant authorities.

5. Next steps

By the 23 January we will communicate tailored feedback to local authorities regarding the outcomes of their exceptional case submissions.

During January to March, we will cross check data in exceptional case submissions with individual learner record and schools census data for consistency checks. We will review any inconsistent cases and may make deductions from the high needs block.

All queries or questions on the exceptional cases process should be sent to us by Friday 27 February

By the end of February, we will update our website and the information in our additional information document for the academic year 2015 to 2016. We are currently working with the High Needs External Group (HEG) to look at how we better present information on high needs to improve our customer service.

We will also issue academic year 2015 to 2016 funding allocations to post-16 institutions, academies and NMSS by the end of February where possible.