Personal Budget SEN – What is it?

 

A personal budget for special educational needs (SEN) is money identified to pay for the support specified in a child or young person’s Education Health Care Plan (EHCP). This includes funds from local authorities for education and social care from ICBs.

Often used in a variety of ways, only those who either have an EHCP or a request for one can request a personal budget. However, personal budgets can only be used to fund the support set out in their EHCP.

Sometimes local authorities or the health authorities may not agree to the Personal Budget, when this happens the decision must be explained.

Most commonly there are four ways a personal budget can be used:

1. The local authority, school, or college will look after the personal budget for the parents or young person, otherwise known as an arrangement or notional budget
2. You can receive the money directly to manage all or part of the personal budget yourself known as a direct payment
3. Someone else can manage the personal budget, also known as a third-party arrangement
4. Sometimes a mixture of some of all the arrangements can be used

Personal budgets vs direct budgets SEN – How do they differ?

Whether personal budgets or direct budgets are used, both are designed to provide families with more control and visibility over how their child’s educational support needs are met. The table below demonstrates the key differences between the two:

	Personal Budgets	Direct Budget
Definition	A personal budget is an allocated amount of money identified to deliver the support set out in a child or young person’s EHCP.	Direct Budget is a method where the money needed to support a child or young person’s needs is given directly to the family to manage.
Key points	1.      The management of personal budgets can vary including direct payments, notional budgets, third-party, or a mixture of all three 2.      Personal budgets offer flexibility to choose and tailor support and services to best meet the needs of the child or young person 3.      Families must be shown how the funds are being used according to their child’s EHCP.	1.      Direct payments provide families the highest level of control over how the budget is used 2.      Families can choose and hire providers to purchase resources directly 3.      Families are responsible for managing the funds, maintaining records, and ensuring funds are spent according to the EHCP 4.      Families must comply with legal and contractual obligations 5.      Offers significant flexibility to tailor support precisely to their child’s needs
Differences	·       Personal budgets can be managed through various arrangements but direct budgets are paid directly to the family ·       Direct payments give families complete control and responsibility over the budget ·       Personal budgets can vary in terms of how much control the family has depending on the chosen management method

Personal SEN Budget – What can it be used for?

As discussed personal budgets can only be used to fund what is highlighted in an EHCP. To cater to all the specific needs of a child or young person there are many ways the budget can be used:

1. Educational support - specialist teaching, educational resources, and therapies
2. Health and Wellbeing - medical treatments not covered by the NHS, counselling, and mental health support
3. Social and Recreational Activities - extracurricular activities and short breaks or respite care
4. Personal Assistance - specialised childcare
5. Transportation - travel costs to and from school, therapy sessions, and other essential appointments
6. Adaptations and Equipment - home adaptations such as installing ramps, and assistive technologies

Notional SEN budgets for school transport – What is it?

 

The notional SEN budget for mainstream schools provides local authorities guidance to help them comply with the requirements of identifying the notional amount for each mainstream school to spend on meeting additional support for pupils with SEN.

Both The Children and Families Act 2014 and The SEND and Alternative Provision Green Paper confirm that meeting SEND needs should remain a core part of mainstream schools’ role and make proposals on how that can happen.

The notional SEN budget is not a budget that is separate from the school’s overall budget, instead, it’s an identified amount within the budget.

So how does school transport fit into this?

One of the biggest areas this SEN budget is being spent on is providing free transport to SEND children who are unable to walk to school. It is thought that spending on school transport for children with SEND needs has almost doubled in the last five years.

Spending for local authorities in England alone is set to hit £1.4 billion by the end of 2024, a staggering 95% rise from £728 million in 2018-2019.

Demand for SEND transport has increased by over 40% with more than 183,000 children using services this year. You may be aware that the annual cost of SEND school transport per child across England has gone up significantly in the past few years. You might be struggling to manage the increasing demands, costs, and limited budgets to ensure all needs are delivered in every child’s EHCP in your area.

BBC has reported that the annual costs per child across England have gone up by around a third from £6,280 to £8,299. These rising costs are consistently putting more and more pressure on councils leaving many stressed that overspending in SEND transport will lead to cuts elsewhere.

The remainder of this article will review the challenges in SEN and home-to-school transport, including the impact of budget cuts as well as the best way to overcome these challenges through digitally transforming your services.

School transport – special needs vs home-to-school transport – What’s the difference?

The main differences between SEN transport and home-to-school transport lie in the specific needs they address and the services they provide. However, with the demand for both increasing but budgets remaining static, it is getting much harder to manage.

As discussed already SEND transport is specifically designed to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND needs to ensure that these students can travel safely and comfortably to and from school and other educational settings.

Home-to-school transport generally refers to the standard transportation services provided to ensure children can get to and from school.  A lot of the time SEN transport is embedded within home-to-school transport but it also most commonly supports students who live beyond certain distances from their school, applying to all students not just those with SEND.

Often SEND transport can involve specialised vehicles, taxis, trained staff, and individual routes to cater to the specific needs of SEND students. Home-to-school transport typically involves standard vehicles and routes with minimal adaptations.

With both having the aim to get students to and from school safely, local authorities have the responsibility to ensure their budgets cover both to ensure no students go without the availability to travel to and from school safely.

Funding for school transport – What are the challenges?

With the demand for SEND Transport increasing rapidly but budgets not, local authorities are not always confident in accommodating children and young people’s needs.

Some of England’s largest councils have argued that the spiraling costs are threatening financial stability and that costs are estimated to triple to over £1.25 billion over the decade.

Due to the demand, both taxis and minibuses are the most common form of council-funded school transport leading to many local authorities paying significantly more to fund their SEND transport compared to children and family services, and youth services combined.

The CCN also highlighted that overspending on SEND Transport was contributing to a £4 billion funding deficit over the next three years. Their study found that one in ten councils were unsure of confidence they could prevent insolvency this year and predict this will rise to four in ten in 2024-2025 and then six in ten by 202-2026 if action does not take place.

Where some councils are overspending others simply are just not able to cater to the needs of children in their community. This, in turn, is leaving children and young people using transport that does not meet their needs, causing distress, discomfort, and frustration.

Not only is the demand rising but so is the complexity of pupils’ needs, this diversity increases the complexity and costs of providing appropriate services exacerbating funding challenges for SEN transport further.

Another key challenge caused by limiting SEN Transport budgets is managing the higher costs of  SEN transport in rural or remote areas due to longer distances and fewer transport providers being available for these routes. Equally, more urban areas have to compete with traffic congestion, which in turn, increases travel times and operational costs, complicating the scheduling and efficiency of SEN transport services.

Here the increasing demand for SEND transport, combined with rising costs and static budgets, is increasing the risk of financial instability for local authorities, especially smaller ones, with some councils facing potential insolvency. As costs are projected to triple, and the complexity of pupils’ needs grows, many councils are struggling to provide adequate and appropriate transport services for both SEND transport and home-to-school transport, exacerbating these funding challenges further.

Special educational needs transport – The Impacts of SEN budget cuts

Budget cuts and static budgets for SEN transport have significant impacts on pupils and their families, as well as local authorities. The table below demonstrates some of the major impacts it creates.

	Impacts
Pupils and their families	·       Budget cuts and static budgets reduce access to education due to fewer transport options, resulting in inconsistent school attendance ·       Creates limited school choices leaving families to select schools based on transport availability rather than suitability ·       Increases the risk of inadequate support, and insufficiently trained staff compromising the safety and wellbeing of pupils ·       Unreliable or inappropriate travel options can cause significant stress and anxiety ·       Some families have been known to cover transport costs themselves if local authorities cannot provide adequate services ·       Some parents have had to adjust work schedules to make the transport adjustments needed ·       Limited options and availability, restrict pupils’ opportunities for extracurricular activities, social events, and therapy sessions, increasing social isolation and reducing opportunities for personal development
Local Authorities	·       Budgets force local authorities to allocate limited resources more strictly ·       Maintaining efficient transport services can lead to longer travel times and less reliable services ·       Budget cuts increase the risks of local authorities not meeting legal obligations resulting in fines and additional financial liabilities ·       Increases the risk of persistent overspending leading to significant budget deficits affecting the overall financial health of local authorities ·       Increases delivery of unreliable services, reducing trust between families and local authorities  ·       Increases the risk of a decline in service quality such as outdated or poorly maintained vehicles and insufficiently trained staff

 

Budget cuts to SEND transport significantly impact pupils, families, and local authorities creating a cycle of challenges that undermine the reliability of transport services.

Addressing all challenges associated with both home-to-school and SEND transport requires a multi-faceted approach involving better planning, and efficient resource management to ensure all children have access to the appropriate transport services they need and deserve.

Changing SEN transport provider – Best ways to do it

 

One way local authorities can address the challenges surrounding SEN transport budgets is by changing providers. However, it is not always that simple. Despite it enabling improved service quality, better-trained staff, increased reliability, and enhanced communication to benefit pupils and their families, local authorities can only change providers when options are there too.

For local authorities, changing SEN transport providers can generate significant cost savings, enhance compliance, create stronger partnerships, and increase competition to contribute to better overall outcomes for the community.

At Access Adam Transport we are aware that changing transport providers isn’t always easy but we know the opportunities that arise from doing so.

Our transport management system helps your local authority facilitate the procurement and ongoing management of transport routes and providers all within one singular platform. Here our cloud-based system gives you full visibility of the market as well as your bespoke services to help you assign dedicated routes and providers to cater to all SEND needs giving your teams confidence and clarity.

To diminish worries and concerns about compliance our system automatically checks all safety and regulation requirements from each provider so you only ever work with fully compliant providers. This, in turn, helps to build up your provider base so you get more bids for each transport route at a fraction of the price.

For example, our customers have found by using our transport solution the number of bids on average per route has increased from 4.5 to 14.4, a staggering 220% increase. Sutton Council specifically has seen an increase in their provider engagement too as now they have 30 providers actively bidding on routes, where previously it was 17.

Equally, Milton Keynes City Council not only have been able to digitally transform their home-to-school transport but their SEN transport too. This, in turn, has helped Milton Keynes better manage transport routed for over 1,400 children with SEND needs, enabling them to perform better against the budget and save over £750,000.

At Access Adam Transport we know the challenges of delivering the transport services required for your community and the benefits your local community can experience when you have a bigger pool of providers to work with.

Investing in digital transport management systems empowers local authorities therefore to seamlessly change and work with multiple SEN transport providers to improve service quality and cost-efficiency. By leveraging such systems, local authorities can enhance compliance, foster stronger provider partnerships, and ensure the delivery of reliable and high-quality transport services for all pupils.

SEN Budget – How can technology help manage special educational needs transport funds?

This article has reviewed the main differences between personal and direct SEN budgets as well as the specific budgets for SEN Transport.

By addressing the differences between SEN transport and home-to-school transport, this article has addressed the challenges surrounding transport budgets. With funding constraints continuing to strain local authorities, the need for efficient resource management and cost-effective strategies is paramount.

Investing in digital transport management systems therefore offers a promising opportunity to overcome challenges. Leveraging technology, like Access Adam transport, enables your local authority to seamlessly change and optimise SEN transport providers and routes to better cater to the SEND needs of your community at a fraction of the price and time, whilst ensuring improved service quality.

With our transport management platform, your local authority can gain full visibility of the market to streamline the procurement process, and better facilitate the management of transport routes and providers by increasing competition, and your provider base, to help reduce operational costs.

Contact us today and let’s work together to digitally transform how you manage both your SEN and home-to-school transport to best navigate the challenges to ensure every child receives safe and reliable travel to and from school.

Empower children and young people to thrive in their educational journey by embarking on this transformative journey towards better SEN transport outcomes now.