Lincolnshire's Inclusion Strategy 2025-26

We are committed to creating inclusive school environments where children and young people feel they belong and can thrive. By understanding their needs and working together across services, we aim to meet challenges early, so exclusion becomes a last resort, not a routine response.

What we have achieved so far:

• Lincolnshire’s SEND workforce development platform provides resources and training opportunities for those who support children and young people with SEND.  It is written by schools for school communities.  The platform has been updated, incorporating an expansion of sixteen additional modules phased online during 2024-25 and 2025-26.  Detailed analysis of outcomes has shown a correlation between completion of modules and an increased ability to meet additional needs       
• a multi-agency review of Lincolnshire’s ladder of behavioural intervention, a framework to support schools in managing pupil behaviour, has taken place, strengthening the ladder to further reinforce its application by schools.  Key focusses have been early warning signs and intervention, good practice expectations, robust preventative whole school approaches and a toolkit to provide schools with resources to implement the ladder effectively    
• a joint multi-agency data dashboard has been developed by the local authority and health partners to maximise the use of data to inform commissioning and share meaningful evidence regarding outcomes and provision of services.  The data dashboard is live and processes are in place for regular updates and publishing of the data, ensuring families and professionals have clear understanding of Lincolnshire SEND population in early years, school, post 16 and adult care.  It also includes data for children’s therapy services, neurodevelopmental pathways, learning disability, dynamic support register and mental health services    
• we have introduced SEND hubs and alternative provision hubs.  The hubs have been created as part of strengthening our mainstream offer; run by mainstream schools as an integral part of their school.  The coproduced provisions are aimed at providing personalised educational delivery across the curriculum to support children and young people as they progress through their educational journey  
• children's continuing care and the children with disabilities (CWD) social care team continue to further develop collaborative working to ensure that children and young people with complex health and care needs receive the right support at the right time.  The panels are held on the same day with a respective representative from health and from care on each panel  
• Lincolnshire’s electronic EHC hub has been widened from completing all EHC needs assessments to also complete all annual reviews of EHC plans, further widening the transparent way of working and access to information for parents, carers and children and young people with a significant level of SEND that require an EHC plan      
• the SEND health quality assurance panel has demonstrated an improvement in clinical report writing.  It has been a substantive programme of work within the NHS Lincolnshire integrated care board (ICB) and provider organisations and feeds into the wider EHC plan quality Improvement audit programme
• the review of alternative provision is drawing to a conclusion with the findings and information being carefully analysed and considered to support identification of actions and steps to provide mainstream schools with the appropriate support so that exclusions are only ever issued as a last resort
• mainstream schools have been developing their own internal provision to meet the additional needs of their pupils, with a focus on national plans by the Government and the DfE so that Lincolnshire continues to drive forward effective and efficient support and provision  
• the local authority increased the availability of alternative provision with a capital build, refurbishing Myle Cross in Lincoln expand Springwell Lincoln.  The increased 54 places have been utilised to support the high number of pupils being excluded 
• Lincolnshire’s commissioned behaviour support review has been taking place.  Positive regard, part of the Wellspring Academy Trust that provides the majority of Lincolnshire’s alternative provision, has been working collaboratively with secondary school leaders to identify effective school improvements to enable them to proactively manage pupil behaviour within their settings

What we will do next:

• the updated SEND workforce development platform will be further embedded across educational settings with access to the additional sixteen additional modules that are being phased online.  Detailed analysis will continue to identify further correlations around increasing school’s ability to meet additional need in schools  
• Lincolnshire’s reviewed and updated ladder of behavioural intervention will be embedded within our mainstream schools, with the pupil reintegration team (PRT) providing ongoing training and support
• there will be continued updating of the joint multi-agency data dashboard.  Further refinement will take place as part of business as usual to review, develop and improve the use of data, maximising its impact in informing commissioning through meaningful evidence regarding outcomes and provision of services
• Lincolnshire will continue to drive forward the introduction of SEND hubs and alternative provision hubs.  They will continue to be coproduced through the local partnership, building on those already developed, sharing good practice and exploring further opportunities to maximise high quality mainstream provision.  The provisions will provide personalised educational delivery across the curriculum to support children and young people to remain in mainstream education where possible  
• children's continuing care and the children with disabilities (CWD) social care team will continue to further develop and grow collaborative working to maximise positive decision making and impact  
• Lincolnshire’s electronic EHC hub will continue to be embedded and strengthened as part of business as usual to provide robust, efficient, effective and transparent support for processing EHC needs assessments and the annual review of EHC plans
• the review of alternative provision will be completed and the findings analysed to support identification of actions and steps.  The findings will be considered alongside national plans by the government and the DfE to support effective decision making regarding the development of support and provision in Lincolnshire
• Lincolnshire’s commissioned behaviour support review will be completed and secondary schools will take forward the learning and positive developments within their settings.  It is extremely positive that not all secondary schools in Lincolnshire are issuing high numbers of exclusions. Good practice will be identified, celebrated and shared and the Review will be used to review the range of available support and inform adaptions.   
• Lincolnshire’s Future4Me supports children at risk of being in the criminal justice system and/or committing crimes.  Teams within Future4Me, inclusion, and attendance will develop and embed a joint working protocol.  By working together, we can tackle challenges more efficiently, develop innovative solutions, and achieve common goals that might be difficult to reach individually. This approach promotes collaboration, strengthens relationships, and enhances outcomes  
• when schools notify the local authority of ‘pupil not attending regularly’ the attendance team will set up automatic notifications for children who are open to Future4Me, to enable exploration of the reason for absence and provide support to the setting to address the absence 
• when a parent or carer is considering home education, the attendance team will support with a meeting in school, to ensure parents are able to make a fully informed decision, as to whether home education is the right choice for their child  
• our ethnic minority and traveller education team will continue to help schools to identify the needs of children and young people, and, where appropriate, will connect them to support  
• we will realign the roles of children and young people's nurses in the children's 0-19 Health Service to deliver the healthy child programme, with a focus on support for children and young people with long term health needs or medical conditions impacting their ability to engage in education