Additionally Resourced Schools as Part of the Government’s Strategy to Create More Inclusion

21 November 2025

Reproduced with permission from Special Needs Jungle. The original article was posted on their website on 4 March 2025.

As we move into a new phase of policy concerning the education of children with “special educational needs,” the Government is clearly recognising that the commitment to inclusive education that has existed since at least the 1970s has faltered.  

Secretary of State for Education Bridget Phillipson has spoken about her commitment to inclusive mainstream education and to improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream education settings. She said at the recent Confederation of School Trusts Conference that her focus will be on mainstream schools delivering specialist provision and showing what is possible – including using SEN Units and Resourced Provision, and that the Government would encourage more schools to set up this form of provision. 

Ever since the 1870 Education Act, there have been debates about how and where to educate certain children perceived as different or difficult. Who these children are has changed over time, as have the labels. We have gone from idiots and imbeciles, to educationally sub-normal and maladjusted to SEND. 

The 1981 Act created an environment for seeking a new approach to the integration of children into the mainstream system. By then, it was nationally recognised that the system for educating “mentally handicapped” and other Disabled children had been inappropriately influenced by the Eugenics movement. This movement had falsely claimed as scientific facts that the purity of the human race was being spoiled by certain groups of people breeding and that they should be kept separate from the rest of society.  

During the 1980s and 1990s, there were developments across the country that led to far fewer children being educated in special schools, and the parental right to express a preference for a mainstream school became more of a reality. The general approach taken in most local authorities was to: 

1. Develop central services to support schools to include children with SEND alongside comprehensive training programmes, and 

2. Develop additionally resourced schools to include and support children who would have traditionally attended special schools and needed regular access to specialist teaching and pedagogy, therapy, equipment and adaptations. 

Resourced schools built on the model of “Units” that had already existed for some time. These were for children with speech and language difficulties and overall were inclusive. Many of these provisions continued into the new system.  

In 2006, Ofsted published a report Inclusion: does it matter where pupils are taught? Provision and outcomes in different settings for pupils with learning difficulties and disabilities. 

The report concluded that: 

“The most important factor in determining the best outcomes for pupils with SEND is not the type but the quality of the provision. Effective provision was distributed equally in the mainstream and special schools visited, but there was more good and outstanding provision in resourced mainstream schools than elsewhere.  

Mainstream schools with additionally resourced provision were particularly successful in achieving high outcomes for pupils academically, socially and personally.  

Those pupils with severe learning difficulties and profound and multiple difficulties included in such provision were as likely to do as well as those taught in special schools when they had access to teaching from experienced and qualified specialists. In a well-run and resourced mainstream school, they were able to make outstanding progress.” (Ofsted 2006) 

The report recommended that there needed to be more of a focus on the quality of teaching and learning for children with the highest needs and that all children with SEND should learn with and socialise with non-disabled peers. Teacher training and in-service training needed to be improved and there needed to be specialist teachers working in mainstream schools to both share good practice for individual children and to support the development of high-quality pedagogy across the school. The report also recommended close working relationships between mainstream and special schools.  

I had the privilege of working in the SEND system as a teacher, advisory teacher and senior manager during the years following the introduction of the 1981 Education Act until the early 2000s. As a teacher I learned how to differentiate my lessons to meet the needs of all my pupils and I developed a passion for teaching children with severe and profound learning difficulties. Their presence in mainstream classes provided them with stimulating environments in which they would thrive. The impact of their presence on the other children was also incredible. Not only was there an incredibly positive impact on children’s behaviour, but friendships also developed, often continuing beyond school. Additionally, resourced schools were a fantastic part of the new system and in my experience, they could be a perfect solution to the current crisis in the SEND system.  

However, the school sector is quite different to how it was in the period I have described. So many resourced schools have created rooms in which children with high needs spend all their time together across the age range and are often supported by teaching assistants with little oversight from specialist teachers. The way that the curriculum is delivered now is much less conducive to including children who have a range of needs and differences. This has led to a crisis which has several elements: 

1. Poor school attendance by large numbers of children 

2. A significant increase in mental ill health in children and young people 

3. Many children without a school place 

4. Special schools full 

5. An increase in children attending expensive independent schools, far from their local communities. 

My concern is that developing additionally resourced schools will not be planned and will be seen as a quick way of solving the current crisis.  

It is positive that the Government now has a focus on the quality of teaching and learning for children with SEND and that it is recognised that mainstream schools need to be supported to able to properly include children. A strategy to develop additionally resourced schools is not a quick win. There needs to be robust planning and proper funding. In my experience the following are the critical factors for success: 

1. A local co-produced strategy based on a partnership between the local authority, community health services, early years settings, schools, colleges, families, young people and the community sector. 

2. An already developed inclusive education strategy based on enabling all schools to be able to fulfil the legal requirement of parental and young people’s choice. 

3. Learning and behaviour support services to support all schools to gain confidence both in their strategic planning for inclusion and with individual children. 

4. A quality assurance function – usually located within a school improvement team. 

5. Planning to provide resourced schools strategically around the local authority area to enable children to attend schools as close to home as possible. For low incidence needs, resourced schools would be ideally located centrally. 

6. Schools to develop additionally resourced provision will already have an inclusive ethos, understand their responsibilities under the Equality Act and the Children and Families Act and be committed to continuous professional development around curriculum and pedagogical excellence. 

7. Once planning with an individual school begins, there needs to be a small group working together. They will have already agreed to specific specialism they will develop, whether it will be for deaf children, children with complex autism or children with profound learning and physical needs, for example.  

8. An agreement on an approximate number of children whose needs will be supported by the additional resourcing will be a crucial decision. This will be partly based on the size of the school and the accommodation (taking account of any capital resources available for adaptations). 

9. Importantly, there will be an agreement about the specialist staff that will need to be on site and the support that will be provided by other agencies.  

10. The next stage is to plan the training needed for the whole school staff. This will be planned to meet the needs of the whole staff body and will be ongoing. 

11. Once the plan is agreed, recruitment, training and adaptations will need to begin.  

12. The local authority will make information available to families and young people accurately describing the new provision. All staff working in the system will need to be clear about the purpose of the additionally resourced provision so that consistent information is provided.  

13. The purpose of resourced provision needs to be clearly described. In my experience, to make the model of resourced provision a success, the purpose need to include: 

• To enable children to learn and play together to their mutual benefit. 

• To break down societal barriers faced by disabled people by enabling non-disabled children to learn about difference and to tackle discrimination. 

• To give all children access to a high quality broad and balanced curriculum, personalised to their individual needs. 

• To enable children with high needs to access what the school has to offer in a way that works for them. 

• To support children with high needs to be part of friendship groups which extend beyond school. 

• To provide parents (and young people) the opportunity to be able to fulfil their legal right to express a preference for a mainstream school. 

• To enable teachers and other professionals to challenge their professional expertise by being constantly curious and aspirational for all their students. 

I hope that we do not develop units. The point of additionally resourced schools is to enable children to be included with their peers as much as works for them at the same time as receiving the specialist support they need.