Local First Inclusion SEND improvement programme

Local First Inclusion is the County Council's special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) transformation programme for education. 

Norfolk's education leaders and the Department for Education (DfE) are developing and delivering it. The DfE has provided around £100m of additional funding.  

The programme sets the framework for the council to improve its support for: 

• Early years settings 
• Mainstream schools and academies 
• Further education providers

The council aims to make sure all these settings have the resources and expertise they need. This will help all children and young people with SEND get a consistently high-quality education. We want that to be with the right support for their needs, in their local area first. 

The main aim of Local First Inclusion 

The aim is to ensure children and young people can thrive, wherever they are learning.  

This means ensuring they get the support they need: 

• To be happy and healthy  
• To enable them to achieve their full potential in their education 
• Lay strong foundations for adult life

For the majority of children and young people, this will be learning in:

• A well-supported mainstream provision
• Or a specialist resource base (SRB) place in the mainstream

The minority, who are children with the highest needs, will learn in special schools.  

As more children and young people are successfully supported in the mainstream, we expect confidence in SEN Support will improve within schools and with families. We anticipate this will mean fewer Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) will be needed.

The Local First Inclusion programme aims to achieve a financially sustainable and effective SEND system in Norfolk. An effective system means the right number of places for children, at the right time, to enable them to achieve positive outcomes into their adult lives.

The challenge and the need for change 

We are lobbying the Government for reform of the SEND system. We are proactively seeking opportunities to work innovatively with the DfE. Our aim is to take a leading role nationally in driving change.  

This is a huge challenge. Effective partnership working is vital for us to achieve our ambitious aims.  

Teams across Children's Services will be working with schools and other education settings, with health partners, and with parents and carers.  

We, as a council, are determined to be by the side of education leaders. We want to work together to achieve the best for children and young people with SEND.  

This is an exciting time in the Norfolk education landscape. The council is providing more flexible and funded support for inclusion than ever before. 

Local First Inclusion's seven key projects

1. The SEND and Inclusion Support Model 

The SEND and Inclusion Support Model focuses on providing early help and intervention. It wraps support around mainstream schools to ensure they provide a consistent level of quality Special Educational Needs (SEN) Support across the county to improve inclusion. It includes a new SEND and Inclusion support line for parents and professionals.

2. Ordinarily Available Provision

Ordinarily Available Provision ensures:

• Children's needs can be identified in a consistent way
• Outlines the processes and the options for how SEN support should be assessed and provided
• Organises wider services and support for children, families and schools
• Supports transitions from one setting to another whether from early years to school, changing schools or moving onto further education
• Models best practice for small group provision, known as Enhanced Support Provision (ESPs)

3. Remodelling the way Element 3 works

We are remodelling the way Element 3 works, in partnership with school leaders. Element 3 is also known as top-up funding.

4. Alternative Provision (AP) 

We are focusing on AP for secondary schools to support children and young people at risk of exclusion from school. Based on a three-tiered approach, it will deliver:

• New outreach services and early intervention support
• Nine early intervention and assessment classes and 10 new school-based social, emotional, and mental health (SEMH) centres
• Specialist transitional placements in registered AP settings

5. Securing the best value for money

We will work to secure the best value for money in the independent special school sector

6. Increasing the outreach offer

We will increase the outreach offer brokered by the council for special schools. This will enable them to provide more support and expertise for early years settings and for mainstream schools to support inclusion.

7. Building and creating more specialist places 

We will be:

• ​​Building two more special schools
• Adding more Specialist Resource Bases (SRBs)
• Expanding existing special schools to provide more places

Local First Inclusion and NASAPS 

The Local First Inclusion programme sits within the Norfolk Area SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Strategy (NASAPS) 2024-29. The strategy has a broader scope, aiming to improve the lives of Norfolk's 29,000 children and young people (ages 0-25) with SEND. It includes working on:

• Learning and development
• Changes and new beginnings
• Preparing for adult life
• Family support
• Friends and activities

Read more about Norfolk Area SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Strategy.