Strategy for Inclusive Education

‘Every learner matters and matters equally’ - Our vision is to achieve inclusion and equity for all Solihull children and young people.

Our strategy for Inclusive Education aims to support the vision of the Joint Additional Needs Strategy (2022) ‘to enable all children and young people to have the best life they can, by holding them at the heart of everything we do do’ and the commitment made in the Strategy that children and young people can get the right support they need at the right time for them. The strategy itself has been subject to engagement and consultation and is currently going through the Council’s formal decision making processes.

In order to achieve our vision of inclusion and equity for all Solihull children and young people, we have worked with a range of stakeholders including schools and parent carers to identify 5 Key Priorities for 2022 2025.

Solihull schools, colleges and Early Years settings will lead on the development of a Solihull Inclusion Standard , to ensure there is a consistent Local Offer and Graduated Approach to support children and young people effectively, whilst also preparing them for transitions and adulthood.

There will be effective processes in place across the system for early identification and intervention, acting upon the earliest indicators of need at every stage to meet children and young people's additional support needs, including SEND.

Participatory systems will be developed further to enable the voice of Solihull's children, parents, school staff and wider services to be central to the decision making processes at school, locality and borough wide levels.

All Leaders across the system will ensure that equity and excellence are always at the centre of all decision making processes, including the development of commissioning intentions and policy development.

There will be a continuous cycle of workforce development to support the inclusion of all children and young people in their local schools, colleges, Early Years settings and community venues.

Who is making sure this work happens?

The strategy has been co produced by Solihull Parent Carer Voice, Solihull schools and Early Year Year’s settings, post 16 education settings, staff from Solihull Council (education, social care and communities) and staff from Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board.

The role of the local authority is to support and enable this process and to work with all stakeholders to deliver the vision of this strategy.

What are the next steps?

Audit Tool:

A group of Head teachers from across Solihull’s Collaboratives have been working with Local Authority (LA) Officers and the Centre for Studies in Inclusive Education (CSIE) to develop an Inclusion Audit Tool for Solihull Schools. Some Head teachers will pilot this tool in the 2022 autumn term and it will be finalised to share with all Head teachers in February 2023. The tool enables the whole school community to contribute to an audit of their school’s inclusive practice and devise an inclusion action plan (iAP) relevant to their school community and context.

Baseline Data:

LA officers are working with CSIE and Exeter/ Edge Hill Universities to gain a baseline picture of Solihull’s current practice in relation to inclusive education. This includes data linked to measures of inclusion in addition to data from interviews with Inclusion Managers, SENCOs, LA officers and key stakeholders. A report will be produced by CSIE with Exeter University in the autumn of 2022.

Training:

In February the focus of the Head teachers partnership meeting will be ‘Inclusive Education in Solihull’. Mel Ainscow, Professor of Education at University of Glasgow, Emeritus Professor at the University of Manchester and Adjunct Professor at Queensland University of Technology, consultant to UNESCO, working on international efforts to promote equity globally, will be speaking to school leaders about role of school leadership in fostering inclusive cultures in schools. CSIE will speak about the work in Solihull and how they are supporting the Strategy Action Plan. The Inclusion Audit Tool will be shared, including findings from the pilot, with the aim that all schools will use the tool in the coming year to develop their own inclusion action plan for September 2023.

CSIE will be providing training to senior leaders in each collaborative on Equality and Diversity and how to use the audit tool. Alongside this, for the next 3 years schools will be able to access the accredited National Nurturing Schools Programme from Nurture UK and training in identifying and meeting the needs of pupils with speech and language needs (based on ELKLAN). The training delivery plan will be agreed in September 2022; the LA will fund the training for school leaders and will fund equally with schools the costs of the whole staff training.

Inclusion Strategy Toolkit:

Schools, services and Solihull parent carer voice (SPCV) are working to develop guidance on the Graduated approach in Solihull for the Local Offer website. This will include videos to explain key processes for parent carers as well as to answer frequently asked questions. There will be information for parent carers and professionals about the pathways of support available in Solihull from universal to specialist services and it will provide links to websites and evidence based resources, as well as links to a Toolkit of local resources available from both health and education services. Work has started on this and will be progressed and developed in 2023.

How can I get involved?

If you are a parent carer or young person and would like to be involved in developing the Graduated Approach please contact the Solihull Parent Carer Voice at solihullpcv@outlook.com .

If you’re a school and interested in piloting the Inclusion Audit Tool during the autumn term, or signing up to any of the training please contact Paula Thompson - pthompson@solihull.gov.uk .

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