Right support, right place, right time

‘The Department for Education acknowledges the current challenges which local systems are experiencing in delivering special educational needs and disability services (SEND). The Delivering Better Value in SEND programme (DBV in SEND) is aiming to support local authorities and their local area partners to improve the delivery of SEND services for children and young people whilst working towards financial sustainability.’

An Introduction to the Delivering Better Value in SEND programme

What is the scope of our work?

Using grant funding received from the Department for Education, Solihull MBC will deliver projects that will:

Improve inclusion for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and additional needs through a structure of assessment, analysis, and training for inclusivity at mainstream schools and other settings.

Develop a strong, comprehensive suite of resources for all schools, settings and partners that will help improve inclusion of children and young people with SEND in schools that best suit their needs.

What outcomes do we want to see in Solihull?

Children and young people will have their needs identified early
Schools will have the skills and resources to meet their educational needs at universal and targeted level
Mainstream schools will have greater ability to effectively meet a wider range of SEND needs
Special schools will have the capacity and resources to educate those children with the most complex needs
Parents have confidence in their child’s setting to meet their needs and enable progress to be made

What are our objectives

The projects delivered will:

Improve inclusion for children and young people with SEND or additional needs through a structure for assessment, analysis, and training for inclusivity at mainstream schools and other settings
Engage schools through an audit process to help them understand the current position with inclusion at their school.
Develop a report of inclusivity data analysis based on the inclusion audit completed by a school. The report will provide signposting to inclusion training based on the needs recognised in the audit.
Develop a group of inclusion champions across Solihull schools to support the needs identified through school audits.
Develop stronger inclusivity resources for schools.
Improve support for children and young people with social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) through the Solihull Graduated Approach.
Develop a range of digital delivery offers to support inclusivity within schools and settings that is comprehensive, clear and easy to engage with.

Project delivery

Delivery of the following projects continue (expected completion date shown in brackets):

University of Derby classroom-based research - Impact of SEMH on schools (September 2025)
Outreach support – Intervention spaces (September 2025)
Speech, Language and Communication Needs training for schools (including SLCN lead training) (September 2025)
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) – Tudor Grant Academy Langley Primary School pilot (October 2025)
Solihull Parent Carer Voice school engagement work (October 2025).
Nurture in schools training programme (April 2026)

The following projects are now complete (completion date shown in brackets):

Development of the Graduated Approach (SEMH section) (April 2024)
Special school outreach support (practice partnerships) (July 2024)
Trauma informed training sessions for schools (July 2024)
SEND focused visits at schools (including sharing best practice events) (January 2025)
DBV SEND Dashboard / Solihull Inclusion Dashboard (March 2025)
Developing the education extranet (March 2025)
Pupil Cohort Review (Special Schools and Additionally Resourced Provisions) (March 2025)
University of Derby classroom-based research - SEND Transition (April 2025)
Inclusion champions (April 2025)
Working with schools as part of the Equity Diversity and Inclusion training (April 2025)