The short answer
The notional SEN budget is the amount your local authority identifies within your delegated budget (or academy general annual grant) to fund SEN support, including the first £6,000 of any high-needs pupil’s provision. It is not a separate pot of money and it is not ring-fenced. It is an identified figure inside the budget you already hold, which is exactly why a business manager or SENCO often cannot find it as a distinct line in the accounts.
How the figure is worked out
In its 2026 to 2027 operational guidance, the Department for Education sets out that local authorities calculate the notional SEN budget using the same mainstream schools funding formula factors that build the rest of your budget, such as deprivation, prior attainment and the basic per-pupil entitlement. The result is a guide to what the school is expected to spend on SEN support before any top-up funding from the council’s high needs block applies. SEN support across a school costs, on average, about £3,500 per pupil a year, not £6,000.
What the £6,000 figure actually means
This is the qualifier most search results miss. The £6,000 is the notional contribution a school is expected to fund from its own budget for each high-needs pupil before the council’s top-up funding starts. It is not a sum you must demonstrably spend on every individual child, and it is not a legal threshold a school has to clear before a parent or school can ask the council for an EHC needs assessment. The notional SEN budget is the funding the council identifies to help schools meet their duty to use their best endeavours to secure the provision a pupil’s SEN calls for, whether or not the child has an EHC plan (section 66, Children and Families Act 2014). It does not set a spend bar on assessment requests.
Where it sits in the wider system
- Below £6,000 per pupil: funded from the notional SEN budget within your school’s own delegated budget or general annual grant.
- Above £6,000 per pupil: the council should provide top-up funding from its high needs block for that pupil’s additional provision.
- The review check: the DfE asks councils to revisit their calculation where it leaves a school less than £1,800 per SEN support pupil after deducting £6,000 for each pupil on top-up funding.
For the threshold itself and the related funding mechanics, see what the £6,000 SEN funding threshold is, how much schools have to spend before applying for an EHCP and what Element 3 top-up funding is. The February 2026 Schools White Paper and the Education for All Bill propose to reshape high needs funding over the longer term, but no changes take effect before September 2030, and the £6,000 mechanism and 2026 to 2027 figures above are current.
Where the law comes from
Related
This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.