(UK) England: $16M for "neurodiverse" support in 1,700 elem schools

Nov 22, 2023, Schools Week: £13m [$16M] trial to test ‘innovative’ support for neurodiverse pupils 1 in 10 primaries will get five days’ worth of additional specialist help from trained staff https://schoolsweek.co.uk/13m-trial-to-test-innovative-support-for-neurodiverse-pupils/

One in 10 mainstream primaries will take part in a new £13 million [$16M] pilot to upskill school staff to offer “excellent provision” for neurodiverse children.

A “partnerships for inclusion of neurodiversity in schools” pilot was successful in the third round of the government’s shared outcomes fund. The fund aims to tackle “some of the most difficult social, environmental and economic challenges” facing the country.

By bringing together health and education staff, the new school scheme will “create environments that better meet neurodiverse children’s needs, ensuring they are able to thrive as part of their wider cohort”. Neurodivergence encompasses variations in neurological function, including Autism and ADHD.

The scheme fits the government’s push for more early intervention in the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system.

The project will each 1,680 primaries in England. Each of the 42 integrated care boards, which decide local health plans, will work with about 40 primary schools, meaning 450,000 children could be reached.

A school will receive five days’ worth of additional specialist support from occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, mental health practitioners, educational psychologists, specialist nurses or specialist teachers.

This would help upskill staff and boost teacher confidence to “offer excellent provision” for neurodiverse children in mainstream schools.

DfE said the project will work with schools to “move away from an emphasis on individual interventions and instead work towards approaches to teaching and learning that work for the whole cohort”.

The school will have access to a dedicated funding pot, helping them work with local parent-carer forums or parent carer groups to support “stronger relationships and strengthen co-production across the school”.

Cash allocations have not been confirmed, but the fund equates to just under £8,000 [$10K] per school.

The pilot will start in September. While it is a one-off project, the scheme will be evaluated and any learnings used to inform future policy on the issue, DfE said. …

Margaret Mulholland, Association of School and College Leaders SEND and inclusion specialist, also called for a “much bigger commitment from the government in improved funding for SEND provision and ensuring that all schools are able to draw on the range of specialist support that is required.”

It is not the first education programme to win money from the fund. In 2021, £15.6 million [$20M] was awarded to the “Alternative Provision Specialist Taskforces” scheme.

It aimed to provide intensive multi-agency support to vulnerable young people in AP who were “most at risk of disengaging with education, being criminally exploited by gangs and becoming involved in county lines and knife crime”.

The shared outcomes fund aims to test “innovative ways of working across the public sector” by “incentivising departments to work collaboratively across challenging policy areas, testing innovative approaches to strengthen joint working, improve outcomes and deliver better value for citizens”.