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Please take 5 minutes to complete our SEND confidence survey for schools and settings. This will serve as a baseline to measure progress through the SEND reforms.

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Mainstream Settings Confidence Survey on SEND and Inclusion

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Mainstream Settings Confidence Survey on SEND and Inclusion

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Change Programme and SEND Reform update for EY settings_14.7.26

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Upfront funding for mainstream schools: creating a ‘local SEND inclusion formula’

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We are seeking views on how local authorities could increase the funding mainstream schools receive to support pupils with SEND.

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Change Programme and SEND Reform update for schools and settings_13.7.26

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Shropshire Council sent this bulletin at 13-07-2026 12:07 PM BST

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SEND and inclusion newsletter - Issue 12, July 2026

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Welcome to the twelfth and last edition for the 2025/26 academic year of the Shropshire SEND and Inclusion Newsletter.

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Inclusion Bases Guidance - The RISE Partnership: Research and Improvement for SEND Excellence

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This e-learning course has been created by the Council for Disabled Children (CDC), part of the National Children’s Bureau (NCB), and funded by the Department for Education (DfE) as part of the RISE (Research and Improvement for SEND Excellence) Programme.

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Introduction

This publication provides non-statutory guidance from the Department for Education ( DfE).

It has been produced to help school leaders and those involved with managing the use of the inclusive mainstream fund ( IMF) in schools and 16 to 19 academies, such as:

academy trust leaders

head teachers

trustees and governors.

It is to help you make the most effective use of the IMF and ensure you adhere to the conditions of grant, including:

investing your IMF allocation in line with the 7 principles of inclusion

publishing an inclusion strategy on your school website by 31 December 2026 - this must include detail of activity invested in to alleviate barriers to learning and participation and budgeted costs (we have provided a template you can use to help you develop your strategy)

If you opt to create a multi-year strategy, you must ensure that this is reviewed annually and note this on the cover page of the document.

This guidance may also be useful for parents and local authorities who want to:

know how schools can invest their IMF allocation alongside their core budget (including their notional special educational needs (SEN) budget) to support inclusive practice

understand the requirement to produce an inclusion strategy

Separate guidance has been published on the:

Purpose

Schools must be places where every child is included and supported to achieve and thrive in their learning, regardless of their needs or background.

The IMF forms part of the government's commitment to support the development of a more inclusive mainstream system. Over £500 million per financial year over the next 3 years will equip schools, colleges and early years settings with upfront funding to help them to become inclusive by design. Inclusive activity should be funded by the school's core funding allocations, including their notional special SEN budget calculated and communicated by their local authority, as well as the IMF.

Our recent consultation SEND reform: putting children and young people first set out our proposals for a reformed special educational needs and disabilities ( SEND) system. We set out a vision for a system in which schools have a strong universal offer and for mainstream funding reforms to support early intervention and more flexible support. Early help and support for children with SEND has too often not been present and our investment through the IMF is a step towards improving outcomes - by ensuring every child and young person receives high quality, adaptive teaching, early help when they need it, and support that is proven to work.

You can use the IMF to strengthen inclusion for all pupils through investment in whole-school approaches and to support the development or delivery of early, evidence-based support for children with SEND. As we move towards a reformed system, we will look to further rebalance funding, directing more into core budgets for schools, so that they are better equipped with consistent funding to support children and young people with SEND.

Under our proposals, this will align with changes to accountability to ensure that this investment leads to improvements. We have proposed placing a legal duty on schools to produce an inclusion strategy, which will be more comprehensive and set out in greater detail how resources are used to benefit children and young people with SEND so parents and local partners can understand how inclusion is being delivered.

As part of this longer-term ambition, through their inspection framework, Ofsted will assess how:

leaders ensure the inclusion strategy is embedded in practice

staff are equipped to deliver it

This guidance sets out how schools should develop an initial inclusion strategy which is a first step towards a reformed system. Schools should plan how they intend to use additional funding provided through their IMF allocation, alongside their core budget allocation (including their notional SEN budget), to start building a more inclusive core offer for all children and young people, including those with SEND.

This should include taking meaningful steps to:

build a strong universal offer that embeds inclusion within the core school offer - in line with the 7 principles of inclusion - and has a positive impact on attainment, progress in learning, wellbeing, belonging and engagement

support the delivery of early, effective, targeted support for those who need it, without the need for formal assessment or diagnosis

In this first year, we recommend that most schools focus their investment on a small number of impactful activities to establish a strong foundation of inclusive practice within their universal offer. Schools with an established inclusive universal offer may wish to allocate investment towards targeted support.

Our proposed reforms also include every school eventually being part of a local group which will pool funding, share resources, and work together to expand help and support available to children and young people. Ahead of these proposed system changes we encourage schools to work collaboratively across any existing clusters and groups to consider how they can best address commonly occurring barriers to learning and participation. Each school must still publish their own inclusion strategy and IMF conditions of grant explain how pooling of funding is permitted, provided suitable financial governance is in place.

The using evidence section contains a range of resources which you can use to inform the selection of inclusive approaches appropriate to your school cohort.

As we move towards a reformed system, DfE will develop new national inclusion standards that set out evidence-informed tools, strategies and approaches that you can draw on to implement whole school approaches for inclusion and develop effective support for children and young people with additional needs.

The standards will be developed by an independent panel of experts and regularly reviewed to ensure they continue to reflect the best available evidence on SEND. These will support you in the development of future iterations of your inclusion strategy and effectively use of your core budget allocations to remove barriers to learning and participation.

Scope of your strategy

The 7 principles of inclusion are:

ambitious leadership and governance that embeds inclusion

evidence-based support prioritising early intervention

high quality adaptive teaching with curriculum designed for all learners

enriching provision beyond the classroom that all children can access

a safe and respectful culture fostering belonging, attendance, and participation in learning

strong partnerships with families and wider services

inclusive environments with continuous improvements to accessibility

When developing your inclusion strategy, you should select approaches that fall under the 7 principles of inclusion.

You should focus on implementing fewer approaches well, to ensure inclusive practice is embedded with impact, consistency and quality in mind. This should include prioritising high quality, adaptive teaching and reflecting on where you can build on existing inclusive practice to strengthen your inclusive offer for all pupils, particularly those with SEND.

As stated in the conditions of grant, any activity that you fund, in part or in full, using your IMF allocation must fall under one of the principles.

The approaches you choose must be evidence-informed and consider the barriers to learning and participation present in your cohort.

Our Inclusive mainstream fund: best practice for schools provides further details on the type of activities that might support each of these principles across both the universal offer and targeted support.

Universal offer

Central to a stronger inclusive mainstream system is a universal offer built on high quality, adaptive teaching and whole-school practices that enable all children, including those who face barriers to learning and participation, to achieve and thrive.

We expect you to use your IMF allocation and core budget allocation (including your notional SEN budget) to help you build a strong universal offer in line with the 7 principles of inclusion.

We encourage you to focus on strengthening your universal offer, building on existing practice, so more needs can be met earlier before the need for targeted support arises.

Targeted support

For children and young people whose needs cannot be met through the universal offer alone, targeted support should be provided to enable them to achieve and thrive.

Where you have a strong universal offer already, you can supplement your approach to inclusion with a more focused selection of targeted interventions.

This may include small group interventions to remove ongoing barriers to learning and participation, such as interventions to develop language skills, or pre-teaching vocabulary to help children access the curriculum, without formal assessment or statutory process.

Targeted support should be selected and implemented carefully, with particular attention paid to how it aligns with the curriculum to avoid a fragmented learning experience.

DfE has published new guidance to support the development and expansion of inclusion bases within mainstream schools, backed by our high needs capital investment. Schools should consider this guidance and how they can utilise both their IMF allocation and core funding to develop high quality inclusion bases that provide targeted support as part of developing an inclusion strategy.

Developing and delivering an effective inclusion strategy

As part of the IMF conditions of grant, you are required to produce an inclusion strategy to explain your plan to use your overall funding allocation to help you build a strong inclusive offer.

This section explains how you can use a 5-step approach, which is an ongoing process, to support you to develop and refine your strategy and is similar to the one you undertake for your pupil premium strategy:

1. Identifying and understanding the commonly occurring barriers to learning and participation pupils face

2. Using evidence to consider inclusive practice

3. Developing an effective strategy

4. Delivering and monitoring your strategy

5. Evaluating and sustaining your strategy

Effective implementation is important for making best use of the IMF and your core budget allocations. You should treat implementation as a process to be executed over a series of stages, not as an event. The Education Endowment Foundation's ( EEF's) guide to implementation supports schools to embed an evidence-informed approach to implementation.

Step 1: Identifying barriers to learning and participation commonly occurring in your cohort

Identification of additional needs and commonly occurring barriers to learning and participation is an important part of the process for building a strong universal offer and considering the targeted support needed to improve inclusion for your cohort, without the need for statutory process.

This step should not solely be led by specific diagnoses or limited by the current identified need profile of children on SEN support or with education, health and care ( EHC) plans, but rather the commonly occurring barriers to learning and participation identified across your cohort.

This will help you move towards an environment where all children can access learning, feel valued and safe, build capability and independence, and succeed.

To identify the commonly occurring barriers to learning and participation facing your cohort, you should draw on a range of sources, including:

classroom observation and engagement with teachers

internal assessments

engagement with families and pupils

discussions with external professionals

data on SEND, including attendance, behaviour, and attainment

evidence on local or national trends in changing need

Step 2: Using evidence

The conditions of grant require schools to spend their IMF funding on activity in line with the 7 principles of inclusion and available evidence.

To support you to make the best use of your available funding, we encourage you to:

High quality teaching is the most important lever for improving outcomes for all pupils in mainstream schools, particularly those with SEND. We encourage you to think about how you can strengthen and sustain these practices at a cohort-level to remove barriers to learning and participation for children with additional needs. The EEF 's guidance on inclusive teaching, intended for publication in the summer of 2026, will provide further details on how schools can ensure strong practice in this area.

Examples of other evidence you should draw on include:

We encourage you to consider a range of external research evidence and use your own judgement and knowledge of your cohort's needs and the barriers to learning and participation your pupils face. The EEF has produced guidance on Using research evidence to help you understand, identify and examine evidence to successfully develop and implement practice.

Step 3: Developing an effective strategy

Develop a strategy for effective use of your inclusive mainstream funding, that:

reflects on existing inclusive practice within your school and how effectively it removes barriers to learning and participation to support all pupils, particularly those with SEND, and where you can go further to deliver a high quality universal offer

identifies the commonly occurring barriers to learning and participation across your cohort

prioritises activities that will have the greatest impact on your cohort considering the evidence that supports these approaches

sets clear, realistic and measurable outcomes for reflecting on the extent to which you have strengthened inclusion

DfE requires that schools publish their strategy on their website. We have provided a template to help you develop your strategy. If you do not choose to use the template, you must still cover the following areas:

the barriers to learning and participation identified across your cohort

activities invested in to alleviate these barriers

intended outcomes

review of the previous academic year

Further information on what should be included in these sections is provided in the Inclusion strategy template.

This approach is similar to the one you are expected to undertake when writing your pupil premium strategy statement. You may find the EEF's guide to the pupil premium, with its tiered approach to strategy planning, a helpful tool in informing the development of your inclusion strategy.

Schools should use their IMF, alongside their core school budget (including the notional SEN budget), to embed inclusion through their universal offer and targeted support.

How you choose to allocate spending across different elements of inclusion principles will depend on the commonly occurring barriers to learning and participation your pupils face and the extent to which inclusive practice, including a high quality universal offer, is already embedded in your school.

We encourage you to use evidence to build on what works for your pupils and use your IMF allocation to strengthen select areas of inclusion from which your pupils would most benefit.

The development of your strategy should be a shared responsibility across your whole leadership team. This could include:

senior leaders such as the head teacher, deputy head teachers, assistant head teachers, school business manager, and special education needs coordinator (SENCO)

governors, trustees, and academy trust leaders (as appropriate to your settings)

middle leaders such as heads of departments and curriculum leads

other school staff involved in pastoral support, curriculum development, and other relevant areas of school practice

You should consult with families, pupils and other stakeholders in your school community to ensure that the strategy reflects your unique local context. This might include:

special or alternative provision (AP) schools you may have links with

local area partners such as health and specialist education professionals

You may also find it helpful to work closely with other schools developing their own inclusion strategies and consider whether peer review and challenge could help to improve your own strategy.

Step 4: Delivering and monitoring your strategy

The EEF's Schools Guide to Implementation has:

information on how to develop and embed evidence-informed approaches

practical advice about how to unite values, understanding and skills around your strategy

To deliver your strategy, you should ensure:

all staff understand inclusion, and display commitment to removing barriers to learning and participation for all children, including those with SEND

the IMF is not considered the only source of funding for approaches you deploy and should be seen as a supplement to equip you to plan, prepare and implement inclusive practice and prepare for reforms

your plan is realistic and you have planned how it will be effectively delivered, including any local partners that will help you deliver the strategy

Once your strategy is in place, you should ensure it is being delivered effectively through:

monitoring pupil outcomes for inclusion by using, sharing and understanding data and insights on progress - this includes creating time and opportunities for staff to reflect on:

data and feedback

how well the strategy is being delivered

further opportunities for strengthening inclusion

supporting staff wellbeing and workload, expectations and understanding of how you plan to embed inclusion through your strategy - this can be done through engagement, collaboration, setting realistic goals and providing extra time and support for staff

reinforcing the strategy through:

ongoing professional development for inclusion and supporting pupils with SEND

communicating and reminding staff that inclusion is everyone's responsibility and how they can support the aims of the strategy

We expect that all pupils will benefit from high quality teaching and whole-school approaches that seek to embed inclusive practice. You should identify and monitor pupils with additional needs to ensure that:

these approaches are having a positive impact on attainment, progress in learning, wellbeing, belonging and engagement

barriers to learning and participation are being alleviated through any targeted interventions for those specific pupils

Step 5: Evaluating and sustaining your strategy

To evaluate the impact of your approaches, you should:

set realistic goals of what you can achieve in this first year and build on this going forward, considering the short, medium and long-term outcomes needed to achieve your strategy objectives

measure success based on outcomes for pupils with SEND such as attendance, attainment, progress in learning, belonging, wellbeing at school, participation, engagement, and behaviour - supported by a robust and transparent evaluation framework

ensure that evaluation is an ongoing process - strategies that have been effective in one year may not continue to be effective the next

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Developing an inclusion strategy using the inclusive mainstream fund

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This publication provides non-statutory guidance from the Department for Education ( DfE). It has been produced to help school leaders and those involved with managing the use of the inclusive mainstream fund ( IMF) in schools and 16 to 19 academies, such as: academy trust leaders head teachers trustees and governors.

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Guidance to help schools and local authorities deliver high-quality provision in inclusion bases.

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Developing and delivering the Experts at Hand offer in year 1: supporting guidance

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This guidance expands on the SEND reform plan to support local authorities and integrated care boards to continue to develop, refine and deliver their Experts at Hand offer from 2026 to 2027.

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Experts at Hand: what those leading and working in mainstream settings need to know

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We’re re-shaping the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system to help make all mainstream education settings – where most children learn – truly inclusive. We’re investing to train teachers, educators and assistants and bring more experts such as, speech and language therapists into mainstream nurseries, schools and colleges.

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Experts at Hand: what parents of children and young people with special educational needs need to know

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We’re re-shaping the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system to help make all mainstream education settings – where most children learn – truly inclusive. We’re investing to train teachers, educators and assistants and bring more experts such as, speech and language therapists into mainstream nurseries, schools and colleges.

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Inclusive mainstream fund for schools: methodology 2026 to 2027

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This document sets out the methodology for the inclusive mainstream fund funding for mainstream state-funded schools in England.

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Inclusive mainstream fund for schools: conditions of grant 2026 to 2027

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The inclusive mainstream fund will be paid by the Secretary of State for Education as a grant under section 14 of the Education Act 2002. In accordance with section 16 of that Act, the Secretary of State attaches the following terms to the grant payable.

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Inclusive mainstream fund for 16 to 19 providers: methodology 2026 to 2027

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This guidance sets out the methodology for how we will allocate 16 to 19 inclusive mainstream fund for schools, colleges and other institutions delivering mainstream 16 to 19 provision for financial year 2026 to 2027.

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Inclusive mainstream fund for 16 to 19 providers: conditions of grant 2026 to 2027

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The inclusive mainstream fund (IMF) will be paid by the Secretary of State for Education as a grant under section 14 of the Education Act 2002. In accordance with section 16 of that Act, the Secretary of State attaches the following terms to the grant payable.

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Inclusive early years fund for 2026 to 2027: conditions of grant and operational guidance for local authorities

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The inclusive early years fund is being paid by the Secretary of State for Education to eligible local authorities in England under section 14 of the Education Act 2002. In accordance with section 16 of that Act, the Secretary of State for Education attaches the following conditions to the grant payable, alongside guidance on how the inclusive early years fund should be managed by local authorities locally.

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Overview

In February 2026, we announced the inclusive mainstream fund, worth over £500 million per year. As part of this, the inclusive early years fund will provide £47 million of additional early years funding in 2026 to 2027 to support the early years sector to become more inclusive of children with special educational needs and disabilities ( SEND).

The split between early years, schools and post-16 was calculated based on the numbers of children in that phase. This funding will be distributed via the inclusive early years fund which will be paid to local authorities, who will in turn pass funding on to providers in accordance with the terms set out in the inclusive early years fund conditions of grant.

This guide explains how we have calculated inclusive early years fund funding rates for each local authority.

Eligibility for the grant

All local authorities in England that fund the government's early years entitlements are eligible to receive the inclusive early years fund and will be required to pay early years providers. This is accordance with Inclusive early years fund 2026 to 2027: conditions of grant and operational guidance for local authorities to guide local authority funding distribution.

The Isles of Scilly and City of London are excluded from these allocations as their funding arrangements are managed separately.

Funding rates methodology

This section sets out the methodology used to calculate local authority level rates per part-time equivalent ( PTE), including the data sources, formula structure and factor weightings.

Data sources

For consistency across early years funding arrangements, we have chosen to use data that are also used within the 2026 to 2027 3 and 4-year-old early years national funding formula ( EYNFF).

These data sources are:

universal hours PTEs for 3 and 4-year-olds recorded in the January 2025 school, early years, and alternative provision censuses

the 2026 to 2027 3 and 4-year-old area cost adjustment (ACA)

free school meals (FSM) eligibility, based on the measure used for FSM in performance tables

disability living allowance (DLA) entitlement data for 3 and 4-year-olds

Further details on the specifics of each data source can be found within the:

We are allocating funding based on 3 and 4-year-old universal hours PTEs because, as a universal offer, this represents a full cohort of children and there is an increased likelihood of identifiable SEND needs emerging at this age. However, while we recommend the funding is distributed based on 3 and 4-year-old universal entitlement PTE numbers, the funding is intended to help providers adopt setting-wide inclusive practices for all early years' entitlements-funded age groups and should be used to benefit children across the setting.

Formula structure

The formula used to distribute the inclusive early years fund is a simplified version of the 3 and 4-year-old EYNFF made up of 3 factors, a:

The weightings differ from those used in the EYNFF because this funding is designed specifically to support inclusive practice, whereas the EYNFF funding rates are for core activities. These factor weightings are derived from internal modelling that made use of published special educational needs ( SEN) prevalence data. The aim of these weightings is to ensure the resulting formula, that is the weighted combination of the formula factors above, produces a distribution of funding rates that reflects our best estimate of the relative levels of need between local authorities.

We also make use of the 3 and 4-year-old 2026 to 2027 area cost adjustment, to reflect relative differences in costs between local authorities.

The data used for FSM eligibility and DLA are the same as are used in the 3 and 4-year-old EYNFF.

Free school meal eligibility

FSM eligibility, based on the measure used for FSM in performance tables. These data are used as a proxy for relative levels of deprivation across the country or low-level SEN. As there are no comprehensive FSM data available for children across all early years settings, data for this factor are based on the proportion of full-time children eligible for FSM in state-funded nursery and primary schools.

Disability living allowance entitlement

DLA entitlement data for 3 and 4-year-olds, which are used to proxy for relative levels of more complex SEND across the country.

Methodology description

For each local authority, we begin by estimating the number of PTEs for each factor by multiplying the relevant additional needs factor proportion by the number of universal hours PTEs. For example, for a local authority with 2,000 PTEs and an FSM eligibility rate of 50%, the estimated FSM PTEs would be 1,000.

Next, we calculate the national total PTEs for each factor by summing the relevant additional needs factor PTEs across all local authorities.

Next, for each factor, we calculate the funding rate per PTE as:

1. national funding total for the factor (that is, £47 million, multiplied by the relevant factor weighting as listed earlier

2. the national sum of each local authority's PTE for the factor multiplied by each local authority's ACA

This results in 3 factor rates, which are (rounded to the nearest penny):

From these factor rates, we then calculate local authority-specific rates per- PTE for each factor. This is done separately for each local authority by multiplying each factor rate by the local authority's ACA. Doing this step allows us to account for relative cost differences between local authorities. For example, for a local authority with an ACA of 1.5, their FSM rate per- PTE would be £43.20.

From these local authority-specific factor rates, we calculate allocations for each factor for each local authority. These are calculated as the local authority-specific factor rate per- PTE multiplied by the local authority's PTEs for the factor. Combining the examples from before, for a local authority with 1,000 FSM PTEs and an FSM rate per- PTE of £43.20 (unrounded), the funding the early years would receive through the FSM factor would be £43,203.

To calculate the final rates per- PTE for each local authority, we must calculate the total allocations from each funding factor and then divide this by the local authority's universal hours PTEs and then round to the nearest penny. For example, if the sum of a local authority's base, FSM and DLA factor funding were £186,250, and this local authority had 2,000 universal hours PTEs, their final rate per- PTE would be £93.13.

These calculations result in a national average rate per- PTE of £61.88 based on January 2025 universal hours PTEs.

Local authority funding to providers

Local authorities should refer to the Inclusive early years fund 2026 to 2027: conditions of grant and operational guidance for local authorities which set out the permitted use of the funding and detail how it should be passed on to providers.

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Inclusive early years fund for 2026 to 2027: methodology

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In February 2026, we announced the inclusive mainstream fund, worth over £500 million per year. As part of this, the inclusive early years fund will provide £47 million of additional early years funding in 2026 to 2027 to support the early years sector to become more inclusive of children with special educational needs and disabilities ( SEND).

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Experts at Hand & Local Authority SEND Transformation Fund: funding for local authorities 2026 to 2027

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This grant is for local authorities, working in partnership with local system partners, to provide an offer of advice and direct support to: