Local First Inclusion (LFI)

What is Local First Inclusion?

Local First Inclusion (LFI) is Norfolk County Council's (NCC) six-year special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) improvement programme. It will bring more than £100m of new investment by the Department for Education (DfE) and NCC. It aligns with the Government's SEND improvement plans.

The programme aims to enable all children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) to get a consistently high-quality education with the right support for their needs in their local area first.

We want them to be able to FLOURISH, whether that's in a special school or in well-supported provision in the mainstream.

The programme, which will run from 2023 to 2029, has been designed based on what teachers, professionals and families have told the council is needed. It is being funded jointly by the Department for Education and the council.

What will Local First Inclusion do?

Working closely with schools is the council's top priority because schools know children and young people with SEND best.

Many of the projects within the programme will be designed and developed with schools.

LFI will:

• Provide more advice, support and funding for mainstream schools
• Introduce 15 new school and community support teams. This is to give early help and support to both parents and schools.
• Provide more specialist resource bases (SRBs) and school led alternative provision hubs at mainstream secondary schools
• Create 270 places at two more new-build special schools.

It aims to enable all children and young people with SEND to get a consistently high-quality education with the right support for their needs in their local area first. We want them to be able to flourish, whether that's in a special school or in well-supported provision in the mainstream and provide help and support to meet needs earlier.

How will we achieve this?

The programme, which started in 2023 and will end in 2029, has been designed based on what teachers, professionals and families have told the council is needed. It has a total of 80 projects divided up into five different workstreams:

• Workstream one focuses on improving inclusion in mainstream schools by increasing the support and funding the council provides to enable schools to build on the work they are already doing in delivering SEN support. New teams will be working with and in schools and there will also be new free advice and support online.
• Workstream two focuses on delivering earlier help and support in schools and direct to families through 15 new school and community teams.
• Workstream three will create a new model for school led Alternative Provision (AP) in secondary schools and creating between 15 and 20 new AP bases to provide more help to avoid children from being permanently excluded. Two new advisors are already in place, and the first four new pilot AP bases aim to open in 2024.
• Workstream four is about using independent schools differently. The way these places are commissioned within the independent special school sector will change.
• Workstream five is about creating hundreds of new specialist places. Two new special schools will be built and around 30 new specialist resource bases in primary and secondary schools delivered. Some existing special schools will also be expanded.

Background

The programme builds on our successful £120m five-year SEND transformation programme which ran from 2018 to 2022, which created more than 650 new specialist education places by:

• Creating new SRBs at mainstream schools and expanding existing ones
• Building three new specialist schools
• Expanding existing special schools
• Giving more support to mainstream schools to help them identify and meet the needs of children with SEND.

How do I get in touch?

If you have ideas, feedback or want to contact us you can email us directly at lfi@norfolk.gov.uk.

Visit the GOV.UK website for further information about the dedicated schools grant.