Why Data-Driven Evidence is Your Strategic Advantage
How EDART by Bitnet Solutions Empowers SENDCOs, AP Leaders and School Management Teams to Build Winning Funding Applications
As we navigate the 2025-26 academic year, Alternative Provision (AP) settings and schools supporting students with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) face an unprecedented challenge: securing adequate funding in an increasingly competitive and evidence-driven landscape.
With high needs funding reaching £11.9 billion in 2025-26, a 9% increase from the previous year and every local authority receiving at least a 7% funding increase per head of their 2-18 population, there is investment in the system. However, accessing these funds requires more than simply identifying need. Post-pandemic behavioural challenges and rising exclusion rates mean that local authority panels are inundated with applications. The settings that secure funding are those that can demonstrate need through comprehensive, data-driven evidence.
This is where your Management Information System (MIS) becomes not just an administrative tool, but your strategic partner in funding success. EDART by Bitnet Solutions was purpose-built for this exact challenge.
The 2025/6 Funding Landscape: What You Need to Know
Before we explore how EDART transforms your funding applications, let’s understand the current funding environment.
Understanding Your Funding Sources
Alternative Provision funding typically flows from several streams:
The High Needs Block (HNB): Provided to local authorities through the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), the HNB is the primary funding source for all high-level SEND and AP support. Your role is to demonstrate that a student requires provision beyond what mainstream settings can offer, enabling your school to access a portion of this allocation.
EHCP Funding: For students with an Education, Health and Care Plan, funding is directly allocated from the HNB and forms part of their statutory entitlement. While AP placements are typically temporary measures and the EHCP may not name a specific
AP provider in Section I, the plan details the support required and the local authority must fund it.
Top-Up Funding: This supplementary payment covers additional costs for students who need support beyond the school’s core budget but may not yet have a full EHCP. Approval typically comes through an AP panel or the LA’s SEND team and is fundamentally grounded in robust evidence from your school.
Multi-Academy Trust Central Funding: If you’re part of a MAT, AP funding may be managed centrally through a pooled resource across the trust, offering greater flexibility in commissioning placements.
The Evidence Imperative
Here’s the reality: funding panels see dozens of applications. With National Standards being developed and an emphasis on evidence-based SEN Support in mainstream settings, panels are increasingly rigorous in their assessment.
They need to see:
- Clear patterns of need supported by longitudinal data
- Evidence of graduated response showing interventions attempted before AP referral
- Measurable outcomes demonstrating that AP placement is the appropriate next step
- Strategic planning for monitoring progress and supporting reintegration
The schools that win funding are those that tell a compelling, data-backed story.
Navigating Local Authority Procedures: A General Framework
While each local authority across the UK has its own specific forms, panels and processes, the procedural framework remains broadly consistent. When you use EDART, you can map your workflow and evidence against each step systematically, regardless of your LA.
Step 1: Identify Need and Gather Evidence
Recognise when a student’s needs exceed what your current setting can provide.
This might be indicated by:
- Repeated incidents or behavioural escalation
- Declining attendance or persistent absence
- Poor academic progress despite interventions
- Deteriorating wellbeing or social-emotional difficulties
EDART’s advantage: Real-time dashboards allow you to spot these trends early. You’re not scrambling reactively when a crisis hits you have historical data showing the trajectory of need.
Step 2: Compile Your Evidence Pack
Your submission must include comprehensive documentation:
- Attendance records, behaviour logs, incident reports showing patterns of need
- Detailed intervention logs demonstrating that AP is a last resort, not a first response showing graduated support with timelines, practitioners involved and outcomes
- Academic and progress data contextualising the student’s educational needs
- Parental consent and engagement documentation
- The student’s voice capturing their perspective, wellbeing and aspirations
- A clear AP placement rationale outlining expected outcomes, provision type and reintegration strategy
EDART’s advantage: All of this data lives in one centralised platform. You can compile, visualise and export evidence packs in ready-to-share formats—no more hunting through multiple systems or piecing together spreadsheets.
Step 3: Submit to Your Local Authority / AP Panel
Identify your LA’s referral route whether through the SEND team, Children’s Services, or an AP commissioning panel. Your evidence pack, alongside the referral form, should align precisely with the panel’s criteria.
EDART’s advantage: Generate visual reports that translate complex data into clear, compelling narratives. Panels appreciate concise, well-structured information that makes decision-making straightforward.
Step 4: Respond to Panel Queries
Panels may request additional information or clarification. Prompt, detailed responses strengthen your case.
EDART’s advantage: Pull deeper reports or alternative visualisations on demand. With all data centralised, you can respond within hours, not days.
Step 5: Secure Funding and Establish Contracts
Once approved, clarify the funding stream (HNB, top-up, trust allocation) and agree on placement costs, duration, review points and exit strategy.
EDART’s advantage: Track placement costs, monitor progress against agreed metrics and maintain a transparent overview for business managers and governors.
Step 6: Monitor Progress and Plan for Reintegration
AP should always be viewed as temporary. From the outset, your referral should include reintegration or transition planning.
EDART’s advantage: Monitor key metrics at agreed review intervals. Share progress reports with the LA or trust board, demonstrating value and outcomes which supports future funding negotiations and continuous improvement.
Why EDART by Bitnet Solutions is the Right Platform for Your Setting
In 2025, the funding landscape demands sophistication. Local authorities, panels and funding streams all expect data-driven storytelling and measurable outcomes.
EDART was purpose-built for this environment.
- Centralised Data for a 360° Student View
EDART brings together educational data, pastoral information and safeguarding records in one unified platform. When preparing an AP funding referral, you typically need to pull information from multiple sources attendance systems, behaviour logs, external reports. EDART centralises everything, giving you immediate access to a comprehensive student profile.
- Real-Time Monitoring and Trend Analysis
Live dashboards enable you to identify early warning signs behaviour spikes, attendance dips, intervention patterns. This proactive approach means you can build your case for AP funding based on longitudinal data, not just crisis-point snapshots.
- Reports Designed for Decision-Makers
Funding panels and local authorities value clarity. EDART allows you to export visual reports covering all key evidence: behaviour trends, interventions attempted, progress metrics and narrative summaries. Your credibility increases, and your funding case strengthens.
- Built Specifically for SEND, AP and Specialist Settings
EDART’s origins lie in special education and alternative provision environments. This means the platform inherently understands the complexities of these settings rigorous safeguarding requirements, multi-agency coordination and sensitive data management. There’s no workaround needed; EDART fits your operational reality.
- Strategic Financial Management and Placement Tracking
Business managers need more than just individual placement approvals they need visibility over budgets, resource efficiency and outcomes. EDART enables you to track
placement costs, review schedules, student progress and reintegration success rates. Full transparency supports not only current funding applications but also future strategic planning.
- A Partner, Not Just a Product
Bitnet Solutions works alongside your setting to customise EDART to your needs whether you’re a standalone AP, part of a MAT or a specialist hub. Our team understands schools, SENDCOs and business managers, meaning you get genuine alignment rather than a generic, off-the-shelf solution.
How to Leverage EDART in Your Funding Applications: Practical Steps
-
Conduct an Internal Audit
In EDART, map all students where AP might be needed.
Filter by:
- Attendance < 80%
- Behaviour incidents exceeding defined thresholds
- Multiple interventions logged
This creates a strategic overview of students at risk and helps prioritise your funding applications.
-
Document Interventions Systematically
Use EDART’s intervention logging module to record what you’ve tried, when, by whom and the outcome. This graduated response is essential evidence for panels.
-
Generate Student Narratives
Pull comprehensive reports for each student combining academic data, attendance, progress, wellbeing and safeguarding context. These ready-made snapshots are panel-ready evidence.
-
Create Placement Risk Dashboards
Build visual representations of students at risk of exclusion, non-achievement or disengagement. This creates urgency and demonstrates strategic thinking.
-
EstablishMonitoring and Exit Templates
Before submitting applications, set planned review points in EDART (e.g., 6 weeks, 12 weeks) for placement reviews and reintegration checks. This shows panels that you’re outcome-focused, not just seeking funding.
-
Export and Share Evidence
Use EDART’s export functionality to create comprehensive evidence packs charts, logs, narratives, parental consent forms all professionally formatted and ready to submit.
-
Evaluate Placement Outcomes
After the placement, use EDART to assess: Did attendance improve? Did behaviour incidents reduce? Was reintegration achieved?
This data feeds into future funding negotiations and demonstrates your school’s strategic competence.
The Business Case for EDART: More Than Just Funding
While this article focuses on securing AP funding, EDART’s value extends far beyond individual applications:
- Improved Ofsted Readiness: Real-time data and comprehensive student records mean you’re inspection-ready at all times
- Enhanced Safeguarding: Centralised pastoral and safeguarding data with audit trails and multi-agency visibility
- Strategic Workforce Planning: Data-driven insights support staff deployment, training needs and resource allocation
- Governor and Trustee Transparency: Clear, visual reports for governance meetings demonstrating outcomes and value for money
- Long-Term Financial Sustainability: Evidence-based placement decisions and outcome tracking support strategic budget management
Looking Ahead: The Future of AP Funding
With National Standards being developed and the government’s ongoing SEND and AP improvement programme, the funding landscape will only become more evidence-intensive. Post-16 EHCP numbers continue to rise, creating sustained pressure on FE settings and the wider system. Settings that invest in robust data systems now will be positioned to thrive in this evolving environment.
The schools that secure funding in 2026 and beyond are those that can demonstrate:
- Clear identification of need supported by longitudinal data
- Evidence of graduated response and exhausted mainstream options
- Strategic planning for outcomes, monitoring and reintegration
- Measurable success in previous placements
EDART by Bitnet Solutions makes this not just possible, but straightforward.
Final Thoughts: Your Strategic Advantage Starts Here
Securing funding for Alternative Provision placements is no longer about filling in forms it’s about telling a credible, data-driven story of need, intervention and outcome. For SENDCOs and Business Managers working in AP and specialist settings, the pressure is intense: you must demonstrate that your proposed provision is necessary, effective and aligned with the student’s best interests while managing budgets, reporting to governors and satisfying multi-agency stakeholders.
This is the environment that Bitnet Solutions, through EDART, was designed to support.
When you choose EDART, you gain a platform that aligns your operational, pastoral, safeguarding and academic data into one unified system meaning your funding applications are stronger, your monitoring is smarter and your outcomes become demonstrable.
Hosted on the powerful Microsoft Azure platform, EDART provides a user-friendly interface that captures everything from medical histories to emotional development, measured against core strengths all centralised for quick analysis and interrogation.
If you’re serious about making your AP referral process robust in 2025 and beyond and about making your funding applications stand out then EDART by Bitnet Solutions provides the foundation you need.
Ready to Transform Your Approach to AP Funding?
Contact Bitnet Solutions today to discover how EDART can become your strategic advantage in securing funding, improving outcomes and demonstrating value.
Visit: www.bitnets.co.uk
Email: info@bitnets.co.uk
Discover EDART: www.bitnets.co.uk/edart
Bitnet Solutions Ltd: Empowering education through intelligent data management since 2014.
Fact Resources and research:
https://ap.dcpro.co.uk/category/government-data/
https://natspec.org.uk/key-facts-2025-data-and-trends-for-send-in-fe/