Information for SEND Professionals

SEND Support Provision Plans

The majority of children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities can have their needs met within a mainstream school or setting. In Birmingham, we want to help schools and settings to demonstrate the support they provide and, where needed, to access the additional resources they need as quickly and easily as possible.

SEND Support Provision Plans (SSPP) are a document developed for use within Birmingham. They are particularly useful for demonstrating the provision in place for children and young people where the needs are complex and require multi-agency involvement, but where the provision does not require an EHCP in order to support delivery within a mainstream setting in the short term. The SSPPs are designed for you to be able to build up a picture of need and provision over time as well as to support effective information sharing across the schools or setting.

As with all applications for enhanced support, it will be necessary to show that you have followed a graduated approach (Assess, Plan, Do, Review), have been co-created with relevant local authority SEN support services, and have the support of your outside agencies in making the funding application.

All cases will be considered at the relevant decision-making group, usually linked to the child or young person’s main area of need.

Parental permission is required for information sharing and applications submitted without this are not able to be considered.

Requests for additional ‘top up’ funding can be submitted at any point in the year but, should have been discussed at the school or settings multi-agency planning meeting prior to submission.  Most requests will be considered within three to four working weeks of submission.

Funding is allocated based on the length of the plan submitted. SSPPs can last up to 12 months. They should be reviewed on a regular basis, as per the SEND Code of Practice, 2015.  Reviews should involve the agencies who supported the writing of the original plan.  The review should help to understand the progress the pupil has made in response to the increased provision, the impact of the provision and what the next steps may be.  At each review school, professionals and the parents should consider whether sufficient progress has been made, a further focused period is required, or whether despite the increased level of provision the pupil has not made sufficient progress. If the latter is deemed true, then school should consider if an EHC Needs Assessment should be requested.

Where a review suggests a further period of SSPP funding is required, a new plan should be written, that clearly reflects the findings of the review, and this can then be submitted along with the reviewed plan and updated consent forms to the SSPP group for consideration. Funding will cease if this is not done.

There are no changes to the processes for pupils who have EHCP’s. Funding for these pupils will be reviewed as part of the normal assessment and annual review processes.

Please note, funding is not available to support SSPPs for children and young people where a statutory assessment has taken place, and which resulted in a decision not to issue an EHCP.

Requests for funding via an SSPP should be emailed to SSPP@birmingham.gov.uk

SSPP Guidance Documents