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Funding for pupils with SEN: 2025-26

Understand how provision for pupils with special educational needs (SEN) is funded in your school, including top-up funding

Last reviewed on 12 May 2025See updates
School types: All•School phases: All•Ref: 6685
Contents
  1. Mainstream schools: you'll receive funding in 2 ways
  2. Funding for pupils in SEN units and resourced provision
  3. Special schools and alternative provision (AP): how you'll receive funding
  4. Personal budgets for pupils with EHC plans 

Mainstream schools: you'll receive funding in 2 ways

1. Your budget or core funding

As a mainstream maintained school, academy or free school, you'll receive resources to support pupils with special educational needs (SEN) through your main budget, or core funding – this is known as your 'notional SEN budget'. 

Using the budget, you're expected to:

  • Meet the needs of pupils with SEN
  • Fund up to £6,000 of additional support costs for each pupil with high needs

Where the cost of a pupil’s additional support is higher than £6,000, the excess will be met with top-up funding (read more on this below).

This is outlined on pages 109 to 110 of the SEND Code of Practice, and in section 9.2 of the high needs funding guide for 2025-26.

If your school is an academy, read more about your school's budget or core funding in our other article.

Where a pupil needs additional support to meet their needs, above