Inclusion fund

The inclusion fund supports eligible children with special educational needs (SEN) who are accessing funded early education or childcare and receiving support from a specialist teacher.

It provides additional funding to eligible early years providers to help meet children's identified needs, promote inclusion and improve outcomes.

Local authorities are required to operate a special educational needs inclusion fund (SENIF) as part of the early years national funding formula.

The inclusion fund forms part of Lancashire's graduated approach to supporting young children with SEND in early years settings.

This guidance explains who the fund is for, how funding is agreed and how it should be used.

The majority of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) do not require specialist resources or enhanced levels of staffing to access and be included in their local early years setting. In their approach to the EYFS and in line with their duties under the Equality Act (2010), most early years settings are able to successfully include and address the needs of children with a wide range of SEND.

Building on existing good practice in early years settings, and as part of the graduated approach, the inclusion fund provides support to early years settings to address the needs of individual children who have emerging and identified special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and promote inclusion.

Sometimes a short term, targeted and measured intervention would support a child to make progress and improve outcomes. Where a sustained level of intervention is required and this is beyond the provision ordinarily available or expected within an early years setting, support may be available through the Inclusion Fund.

For the majority of children support through the Inclusion Fund will enable settings to effectively address their needs. However, for children with more severe or complex needs, especially those for whom specialist provision may be required, it is envisaged that a request for an Educational, Health and Care Needs Assessment will be made and where appropriate an Education Health and Care Plan may be issued. This is in line with the Early Years Entitlements: Local Authority Funding of Providers Operational Guide 2025-26:

"A local authority’s SENIF is for supporting children below compulsory school age with SEN and who are eligible for the entitlements. SENIF funding should be targeted at supporting children with low-level or emerging SEN"

The Inclusion Fund is intended to develop provision and practice and support the implementation of evidence-based approaches to improve outcomes for young children with emerging SEND.

Currently this payment is £83 per week, up to maximum 38 weeks. The provision of additional funding will usually be reviewed on a six-monthly basis as children's progress towards identified outcomes is reviewed. It is intended to enable settings to implement specific advice and guidance from Specialist Teachers, and other relevant professionals, to support the progress and outcomes for individual children. It is anticipated that settings will develop their capacity, in terms of skills and confidence, to implement more 'specialist' practices and approaches to address children's needs in the future.

The following are examples of how this funding may be used:

• Contribute towards enhanced staffing levels to deliver specific targeted interventions, for example, additional staff time above and beyond that already expected within the setting as a reasonable adjustment at SEN Support to:

  • provide an additional 20 mins focused work on specific individual programme 3x per week for 6 weeks (in line with TLP)

  • intermittent periods throughout the day to introduce an individual visual timetable to a child over a 4-6 week period (in line with TLP)

• Practitioners attend training as it relates to supporting children's (individual or group) needs, such as Makaton, BSL, moving and handling, supporting young children with ASD, bucket time, supporting young children with speech, language and communication needs, working with young children with multisensory impairment (MSI), deaf awareness or working with young children with a visual impairment.

• Practitioners in a setting registered for children aged 2-4 require resources, not ordinarily available in their provision, for children working at a significantly younger levels of development.

The Inclusion Fund monies should be used in conjunction with the setting's own budget and with any other funding received, for example, Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) or Disability Access Fund (DAF).

It is recognised that children develop and progress in different ways and at different rates and have different needs at different times. The Inclusion Fund should only be applied for when the setting has:

• precisely identified a child's level of development and that this is delayed.

• clearly identified the child's needs and identified appropriate outcomes to work towards to support the child to make progress.

• implemented and reviewed the impact of appropriate approaches and strategies to support the child to make progress towards identified outcomes.

Settings should be clear about how the additional provision they are making for the child is above and beyond that which is ordinarily available within an early years setting and exceeds the expectations for reasonable adjustments.

To support settings in achieving the above, it is ordinarily expected that a 'Request for Involvement' from the Specialist Teaching Service, Early Years Team will have been made prior applications being submitted.

Applications to the Inclusion Fund form part of the graduated approach to meeting children's SEND. It is therefore expected that settings will have a range of evidence identifying the child's needs and the steps that they have taken to as part of their everyday practice, reasonable adjustments and SEN Support interventions to address these for example: tracking over time and across the areas of learning and development within the EYFS, individual provision maps, targeted learning plans (TLPs) and reviewed TLPs.

Apply for inclusion funding

It should be noted that applications may not always result in requests for funding being agreed.

It should also be noted that applications for Inclusion Funding should not be made for children with a final Education Health and Care Plan as funding provision to meet their needs will be identified and supported through the statutory process.