Ministers have unveiled their thinking on what inclusion should look like with the promise of funding for schools to help them develop and put in place their plans.
According to the document, every school will have to produce an inclusion strategy by December 31, with secondary schools receiving an average of £48,000 each per year, and primaries around £14,000.
The money should be sent on initiative such as inclusion bases for pupils with SEND.
The Department for Education (DfE) also announced that its inclusion and trust lead, Tom Rees, will chair a panel of experts to develop ideas to underpin the future of EHCPs and national standards.
It is currently seeking to recruit eight panel members and a health co-chair to meet the task.
Specific approaches
New guidance shows that school strategies must set out how leaders will “ensure high quality ordinarily available provision which meet children’s needs” and fulfil the conditions of the inclusive mainstream grant.
Strategies should also report on the “commonly occurring, predictable needs” within a school’s cohort, and the “barriers to learning pupils with additional needs face”.
School leaders will have to specify what approaches they are taking to meet these needs, and will have to publish them on school websites and update them annually.
Further guidance on how to draft an inclusion strategy will be published before the summer.
New funding
The £400 million a year over three years is to help schools to “transition towards a reformed education system that is inclusive by design”.
Schools will be expected to use their funding to better understand the needs of their cohort and strategically plan whole-school approaches leading to inclusion through their universal offer.
The funding can also be spent on developing targeted support for pupils, the DfE said.
The universal offer
The DfE also outlined what it expects schools to provide through the universal offer, and what the tiers of support should look like for SEND pupils.
These should be grounded in seven principles of inclusion that include evidence-based support for early intervention, high quality teaching for all learners, a respectful culture of belonging and strong partnerships between the school and families, and external services.
