A schools resource pack has been launched to target spending on children with special and additional educational needs...

An interactive website was published today by the Audit Commission, The National Strategies and the Department for Children Schools and Families (DCSF) to help schools determine whether their spending on children with special and additional educational needs is offering value for money and making real improvements to these children’s education.

The website will enable head teachers and their management teams to:
• Identify sources of special educational needs (SEN) and additional needs (AEN) funding for their school;
• Identify their actual annual expenditure on special and additional educational needs;
• Compare their total SEN/ AEN budget with their actual expenditure;
• Identify pupils for whom this funding is to be used;
• Identify what services/facilities are being provided for those children;
• Compare identified outcomes with need and expectations for these children;
• Evaluating the impact of services and facilities on outcomes; and
• Determine whether the school achieves good value for money in its SEN/AEN provision.

The electronic resource is being made available to schools across England and is intended to help schools target their SEN/ AEN funding – a key recommendation of the recent Education and Skills Select Committee report on Special Educational Needs. Information on the schools resource pack is available on the Audit Commission website at: http://sen-aen.audit-commission.gov.uk/.
Chris