Local First Inclusion SEND improvement programme

Local First Inclusion is the county council's six-year special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) improvement programme.

It aims to enable all children and young people with SEND to get a consistently high-quality education with the right support for their needs in their local area first.

We want them to be able to flourish, whether that's in a special school or in well-supported provision in the mainstream and provide help and support to meet needs earlier.

The programme builds on our successful £120m five-year SEND transformation programme which ran from 2018 to 2022, which has already created more than 650 new specialist education places by:

• Creating new specialist resource bases (SRBs) at mainstream schools and expanding existing ones
• Building three new specialist schools
• Expanding existing special schools
• Giving more support to mainstream schools to help them identify and meet the needs of children with special educational needs and/or disability (SEND)

Local First Inclusion will bring more than £100m of new investment by the Department for Education (DfE) and Norfolk County Council. It aligns with the Government's recently announced SEND improvement plans.

Local First Inclusion will provide:

• More advice, support and funding for mainstream schools
• Introduce 15 new school and community support teams, the first of which aims to be in place by September 2023. This is to give early help and support to both parents and schools.
• More specialist resource bases (SRBs) and alternative provision at mainstream secondary schools
• Two more new-build special schools 

Visit the GOV.UK website for further information about the dedicated schools grant.