Pupil Premium Plus and SEND: How the Grant Works and What Your Child Is Entitled To

Most parents navigating the SEND system focus almost entirely on the EHCP — and for good reason. But there is a parallel funding stream that affects a specific group of children, and it is often poorly understood even by school staff: Pupil Premium Plus.

If your child is a looked-after child, a previously looked-after child, or has been adopted from care, this additional funding exists specifically for them. Understanding how it works, who controls it, and what accountability looks like is part of knowing the full picture of what your child is entitled to.

What Pupil Premium Plus Is

Pupil Premium is additional government funding paid directly to schools for specific groups of disadvantaged pupils. There are several categories, but Pupil Premium Plus (PP+) applies specifically to:

• Looked-after children (LAC) — children currently in local authority care
• Previously looked-after children — those who left care through adoption, a Special Guardianship Order (SGO), or a Child Arrangements Order

As of 2024/25, the Pupil Premium Plus rate for looked-after children is £2,530 per pupil per year. For previously looked-after children (including adopted children), the rate is the same.

This is separate from any funding attached to an EHCP. A child can receive both.

Who Controls the Funding for Looked-After Children

Here is where it gets important. For looked-after children, Pupil Premium Plus is not paid directly to the school in the same way as regular Pupil Premium. Instead, it is managed by the local authority's Virtual School Head (VSH).

The VSH holds statutory responsibility for promoting the educational achievement of all looked-after children in their local authority area. They manage the PP+ allocation and must ensure it is deployed in line with each child's Personal Education Plan (PEP). The VSH works with schools to agree on how the funding is used and can redirect it if a school is not using it effectively.

For previously looked-after children (adopted children, children under SGOs or Child Arrangements Orders), the funding is paid directly to the school — but parents and guardians have the right to request information about how it is being spent.

How Schools Are Required to Use Pupil Premium Plus

Schools must publish a Pupil Premium strategy statement each year on their website, setting out:

• The amount of Pupil Premium funding received
• How the school intends to use it
• The impact of previous year's spending

For looked-after children specifically, the PEP review process (which should happen at least once per term) must address how PP+ is being used for that individual child. The VSH should be satisfied that funding is genuinely targeted at improving outcomes — not absorbed into the school's general operating budget under a vague heading.

Common issues parents encounter:

• PP+ being listed as contributing to generic "SEND support" without specifying what provision it is actually funding
• No evidence that the child's PEP is informing how the money is spent
• Schools unable to articulate what PP+ is funding when asked directly

None of these are acceptable. The funding exists to benefit individual children, and schools should be able to demonstrate that clearly.

Pupil Premium Plus and EHCPs: How the Two Interact

Pupil Premium Plus does not reduce a school's obligation to deliver provision specified in an EHCP. This is a critical point.

Section 42 of the Children and Families Act 2014 places an absolute duty on the local authority to secure the provision specified in Section F of an EHCP. That duty is not discharged by pointing to Pupil Premium spending. A school cannot argue that PP+ is funding the 1:1 Teaching Assistant specified in Section F and therefore the EHCP provision is being met — because PP+ is discretionary additional funding, not a substitute for statutory EHCP provision.

In practice, PP+ and EHCP provision can overlap in terms of the actual support a child receives. But the legal entitlement under the EHCP exists independently of any Pupil Premium allocation. If provision is specified in Section F, it must be delivered regardless of whether PP+ is available to fund it.

What to Do If PP+ Is Not Being Used Effectively

If you are an adopter, special guardian, or carer of a previously looked-after child and you are concerned about how PP+ is being spent at the school:

1. Ask the school directly — request a meeting with the SENCO or headteacher to discuss the Pupil Premium strategy and how funding is specifically benefiting your child
2. Request the Pupil Premium strategy statement — schools are required to publish this, and you can ask for the section relating to previously looked-after children
3. Involve the Virtual School Head — even for previously looked-after children, the VSH in your local authority area can often offer guidance and act as an intermediary if the school relationship has broken down

For looked-after children, escalation is more straightforward because the VSH has direct authority over how PP+ is deployed. If the PEP review process is not happening regularly, or if the VSH cannot demonstrate that PP+ is being used to meet the child's individual educational needs, that is a failure the VSH is responsible for addressing.

The Broader SEND Funding Picture

Pupil Premium Plus sits alongside two other main funding streams relevant to SEND children in schools:

Notional SEN budget — every school receives delegated funding as part of its main allocation. Schools are expected to use the first £6,000 per pupil per year of additional SEND support from this budget before EHCP funding kicks in. This £6,000 threshold is a planning assumption, not a gatekeeping requirement — local authorities sometimes misuse it to refuse EHCP assessments, which is unlawful.

High-needs element of EHCP funding — provision specified in Section F of an EHCP that exceeds what the school can reasonably provide from its notional SEN budget. The local authority funds this directly, either by top-slicing the school's allocation or through specialist placement funding.

Understanding how these streams interact matters when schools claim they "can't afford" provision that is already specified in your child's EHCP. The question is always whether the provision is in Section F — if it is, the funding obligation falls on the local authority under Section 42, regardless of what is happening with PP+ or the notional SEN budget.

Getting the Full Picture

Pupil Premium Plus is one part of a larger landscape of entitlements that many families navigate without realising the full picture. If your child has an EHCP and also qualifies for PP+, both streams should be working in their favour — and you have the right to understand and challenge how both are being used.

For a full breakdown of your child's EHCP rights, including how to enforce provision under Section F and what to do when the local authority fails to deliver, the England SEND Tribunal Playbook covers the complete statutory framework in practical detail.

The funding is there. The entitlements are real. Knowing where to look and what questions to ask is half the work.

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