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Element 1 – Basic Entitlement – Average Pupil Weighting Unit (APWU)

The APWU is the amount of money every maintained school receives for each pupil. This funding supports all learning and will be used for staff salaries, buildings and resources.

A percentage of this should be spent on supporting pupils with additional or special educational needs (this would relate to children in care).

Birmingham would expect to see schools using at least 5% of APWU funding in their Special Educational Needs (SEN) budget, and this sits within the .

Element 2 - Additional Education Needs (AEN)

Element 2 funding is often referred to as the SEN notional budget.

For pupils aged 5 to 15 years in mainstream schools a notional SEN amount will be shown in the school's budget share.

This is an indicative amount that schools may set aside for pupils with SEND and is funded from the schools block.

The notional SEN budget is based on factors including the number of pupils on roll:

• eligible for free school meals 
• classed as looked after children 
• with English as an additional language

Prior attainment is also a factor.

The Notional SEN budget should:

• fund meeting the needs of pupils with low cost, high incidence SEN (also referred to as additional educational need)
• contribute to the first £6,000 of the costs of provision for pupils with high needs (not all pupils with SEN will require this amount) 

From this, schools must provide a standard offer of teaching and learning for all pupils, including those with ‘predictable’ high needs, to enable them to access the school’s teaching and learning offer.

Deprivation funding

This is part of the AEN funding but does not form part of the Notional SEN budget.

There is an expectation that deprivation funding would be used to contribute towards actual free school meals, together with the Universal FSM funding primary schools receive.

Low cost high incidence (LCHI) 

The LCHI SEN part of element 2 within the school budget share will be paid to schools within their school budget share regardless of actual statemented pupils.

There is an expectation that each school shall have at least £5,000 available for LCHI SEN.

For those schools where the formula does not deliver the £5,000 within their school budget share, the local authority will top up the schools funding out of the high needs block to achieve the minimum of £5,000. 

Individual Assigned Resource (IAR)

The IAR within the school budget share will be paid to schools regardless of actual pupils with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs). 

There is an expectation that each school shall have at least £6,000 available for IAR SEN.

Element 2 shortfalls

Where the recognised demand from EHCPs on the IAR funding exceeds funding available, this will be addressed from the High Needs block, without the need for application.  

This is allocated to individual named children with EHCPs and the level of funding attached is based on their level of need.

For more information about funding, visit .

Page last updated: 3 July 2024