In order to plan provision effectively, SENCOs need to have a thorough understanding of SEND funding and their school’s budget. Information about schools' notional SEND funding can be found here. A summary of post-16 SEND funding Preparing for Adulthood a Quick Guide, can be accessed here.

A key role for SENCOs in meeting children and young people's needs is through effective provision mapping and management. It is helpful for SENCOs to regularly collate and analyse their SEND data. This data can help to identify trends and growing areas of need, which can inform whole setting development priorities for SEND provision (at an individual, group and whole setting level) and maximise the impact of limited resources.

For example, where SEND data identifies a cohort of children and young people with language and/or communication needs, this data would be used to inform individual and group intervention support and a wider consideration of whole setting approaches to supporting the development of all children and young people's language and communication skills. Effective provision mapping ensures that intervention is embedded within an environment that champions inclusion and good practice.

SENCOs identify that pupil progress meetings are a helpful forum through which needs can be identified and the information shared can be used to inform next steps at different levels across the setting.

An editable SEND data profile template, which can be used to capture your SEND data ‘in a nutshell’ can be found in the 'related files' section of this page.