Special Education Needs Inclusion funding (SENIF) may be available to Early Years settings, to support them with providing an inclusive environment that meets the needs of all children. Children must be in receipt of Free Early Education Entitlement (FEEE), to be eligible for inclusion funding.
Most children with special educational needs are successfully included in early years settings with reasonable adjustments. For children with higher levels of need, inclusion funding can be applied for to enhance the provision to support the inclusion of these children.
Information for Parents and Carers
The implementation of an Special Education Needs Inclusion funding (SENIF) is a statutory duty of all local authorities. If your child has additional needs and attends a Derbyshire setting, they will be eligible for SENIF if:
- they attend an Ofsted registered provider, contracted by the Local Authority to deliver Government funded early years provision;
- they are aged 9 months to 4 years old until they start in a school reception class;
- they are in receipt of a government funded place
- and do not have a final Education, Health and Care plan (EHCP).
SENIF enables access to extra funding to support your child's inclusion in their early years setting. The SENIF panel may also signpost settings to other services or resources to access additional advice and support.
All applications for SENIF must be made by the setting. It would usually be the SENCO or nursery manager who completes the application form. They have to ask for your consent, and we would expect them to talk to you about this as part of working with you to support your child. There is a parent form that you can complete as part of the application. This helps the funding panel gain a good understanding of your child's strengths and needs.
Note: if you live outside Derbyshire but your child attends a Derbyshire setting then the setting can apply for SENIF for them. If you live in Derbyshire but your child attends an early years setting in another local authority, then the setting will need to apply to the Local Authority with whom they are contracted.
Information for Settings
From September 2026, funding will no longer be allocated on a ‘hours’ basis, but on a ‘banding’ basis. This means that settings are no longer required to allocate timings to the proposed learning outcomes. Children will be funded for the FEEE hours they attend only. When making any decisions regarding inclusion funding, the panel will use the Early Years Inclusion Banding Descriptors (see related documents section for an overview of this document). This ensures consistency in funding allocated across the county; so, children with similar needs are awarded the same funding band. Providers are also reminded to claim Disability Access Fund (DAF) for eligible children to help support children within the provision.
SENIF is not intended to provide continuous 1:1 support for children. Good provision balances individual intervention with independence and inclusion. SENIF provides top-up funding to enable settings to enhance staffing ratios. This gives better support to children who need strategies which are additional to, or different from the normally available differentiated offer of provision.
The funding is available to children attending Derbyshire settings. In line with the 4 banding levels (Band A (Emerging / Low Need), Band B (Moderate Need), Band C (Significant Need) and Band D (High / Complex Need) the child’s needs may be emerging, or they may have significant barriers to learning. SENIF is available to children who attend either a maintained or non-maintained setting, including childminder settings. Funding is intended to enable settings to provide enhanced staffing, access training or purchase resources to support the needs of the specific child.
SENIF is part of the provision made at targeted, targeted plus and specialist levels of the graduated response. Settings should submit applications which show that a child's needs and barriers to learning require additional funding above the resources normally available to them. Applications must show evidence of the child's needs and your graduated response to these needs through cycles of the assess, plan, do, review model.
The SENIF panel meet every week to assess and moderate applications for funding. If the application is successful, the setting can claim funding from the week after the application is considered by the panel. Decision letters are sent out accordingly to the setting. The setting should inform the parents of the decision.
NEW applications for funding must now be made online using the Early Years SEN Inclusion Fund Application Form. Settings need to set up an account. Having an account means that settings can return to forms that they are not able to complete in one go. There is a supporting guide to completing the online form in the Related Documents section of this page.
Evaluations and requests for continued funding should also be made online using the Early Years SEN Inclusion Fund Evaluation Form.
For nursery children who are starting school in September, applications for Inclusion Panel funding for September should be made by the school using the Inclusion Panel Referral Form. These applications will be accepted in the summer term for funding decisions to be made in time to allow schools to plan staffing ahead of the start of the new school year.
Other documents supporting SENIF are attached to the 'Related Documents' section of this page.
Contact
Email: CS.EYSENInclusionFunding@derbyshire.gov.uk