Please find below an update provided by KCC.
KCC Locality KIT Meeting
KALE are aware KCC received a number of emails and complaints as they experienced a number of issues when attempting to join the Locality KIT meeting online, on Wednesday last week.
We have been assured that KCC are investigating to ensure these issues don’t occur in the future.
The slides from the session are all hosted on Kelsi and will continue to be updated. This is one of their direct communication channels to schools.
Locality Model for School Inclusion - KELSI – overview page which links into the Updates, Frequently Asked Questions and Keeping in Touch - KELSI page.
KCC Communications to Schools - HNF
KALE has received a copy of a letter, which we are advised has been sent to mainstream schools. This information lays out the protections agreed for HNF to be paid directly to schools for the academic year 2025-2026.
This is based on protections for children with EHCPs who are in receipt of funding over £6000, current applications up to 31st Dec 2024 and 75% of historic spend patterns.
A copy of this letter can be found here.
Every individual school has also been sent a balance sheet of how their funding has been calculated. An example template can be found here.
Please note that some schools have reported receiving their email late Friday evening and they were sent to the office inbox.
We are advised This funding will allow schools to transition into a new way of working over 2025 - t2026. All future SEN support funding in mainstream schools for Sept 2026 and beyond will be distributed via the Communities of Schools.
Community budgets, SEN notional budgets, the breakdown of transition allocations and the community chairs will be published on KELSI next week.
Schools are invited to induction meetings to support them with new ways of working. FAQs and registration for these meetings are via this link.
Schools are encouraged to visit the FAQs and Induction meetings in the first instance. There is also an email address for financial requests to go straight to the School Finance Team - schoolfunding@kent.gov.uk
The KALE SEND & Inclusion Working Group continue to represent colleagues in the meantime. The group will next meet on 13th May, where Siobhan Price will be in attendance to provide any further updates (if any) and listen to feedback.
Posted: Mar 31, 2025