Costed provision map: how to build one and show impact

Why cost the provision map

A provision map lists the additional and different provision a school makes for pupils with SEND. A costed provision map adds what each intervention costs, per pupil and in total. It answers three questions that come up every year: is the notional SEN budget being spent on SEND, which interventions give the best impact for the money, and what would a pupil’s provision cost if an EHC needs assessment were requested. With the proposed Inclusive Mainstream Fund and inclusion strategy, schools should expect to show what funding bought.

What to record for each intervention

• Name, area of need and tier (universal, targeted, targeted plus or specialist).
• Delivery: one to one, small group or whole class, and the role of the adult delivering it.
• Sessions per week, minutes per session and the number of weeks it runs.
• Cost per session (usually the hourly staff cost) and any fixed cost such as a licence or resources.
• Funding source: notional SEN budget, Inclusive Mainstream Fund, pupil premium, EHCP top-up or other.
• The pupils on it, with an entry measure, an exit measure and a judgement of impact.

Working out the cost

For a group intervention, the total cost is cost per session × sessions per week × weeks, plus any fixed cost; divide by the number of pupils for the cost per pupil. For one-to-one work, the sessions are repeated for each pupil, so multiply by the number of pupils as well.

Showing impact

Cost on its own says nothing about value. Record an entry measure when a pupil starts (a standardised score, a reading age, a count of incidents) and an exit measure when they finish, then make a judgement: significant impact, some impact, no impact or too early to say. Over a year, cost per pupil next to impact shows which interventions to keep, and the evidence feeds straight into Individual Support Plans and EHC needs assessment requests.

Keeping it live

Spreadsheet provision maps go out of date because pupils join and leave interventions every week. Sendiphany’s Provision map keeps interventions, pupils, costs and impact together, totals spend by funding source and tier automatically, and links each pupil’s provision to their support plan.