“Mainstream inclusion” — what it actually means

A big part of the reforms is what is being called mainstream inclusion: making every mainstream school more able to support children with SEND, so fewer families have to fight for a special school place or an EHCP just to get the basics.

In practice that is meant to look like: more training for teachers and teaching assistants, specialist staff (speech and language, educational psychology, autism and ADHD advisers) coming into schools earlier, and funding attached to it.

What to watch for: this only helps if the support is real, funded, and actually in the classroom — not just a policy on a website. If your child is in a mainstream school and the support is not there, that is worth telling us about. Patterns across lots of families are what move the council.