Dear colleagues

As the SEND reform preparation continues to progress, we will share updates over the coming months. This bulletin includes a recap of the funding streams announced last month, alongside wider updates, as revisiting key messages can help ensure information is clear, accessible and not missed. It also reflects our ongoing work locally to listen to children, young people and parent carers as part of our preparation for reform.

We will continue to use existing, trusted channels to share updates, listen carefully to feedback from schools, settings, families and young people, and create opportunities for dialogue as we prepare for SEND reform together.

Day one bookings for our Attendance and Inclusion Conference are now closed. A small number of places remain for day two (17 June), so if you haven’t yet registered, please do so soon to avoid disappointment: Attendance & Inclusion Conference 2026 - Register your place.

The conference will include a citywide Inclusion Gallery, offering children and young people the opportunity to share what inclusion and belonging look like through their own eyes. We would love schools and settings to get involved, and full details on how to take part are included below.

The Early Years Ordinarily Available Guidance is now available online, providing practical ideas to support children, particularly where a child may need a little more help, while also helping parents and carers understand what support should be in place. This guidance will continue to grow, and we would welcome feedback and examples of practice as we build a citywide library of helpful ideas.

Thank you, as always, for your dedication and support. I know many of you will be looking forward to the half term break, and for those celebrating Eid next week, I wish you a very happy and peaceful time with family and friends.

With best wishes

Helen

Recent Funding Announcements

Inclusive Mainstream Fund

Supports mainstream schools to embed inclusive practice and provide early support without reliance on diagnosis or statutory processes.

• Guidance & methodology (2026–27):
  Inclusive Mainstream Fund for schools: methodology 2026 to 2027
• Overview page:
  Inclusive Mainstream Fund – GOV.UK collection

Early Years Fund (Inclusive Early Years Fund)

Upfront funding for early years providers to build inclusive practice and enable early intervention for children with SEND.

• Conditions of grant & operational guidance (for LAs):
  Inclusive early years fund for 2026 to 2027 – GOV.UK
• Sector summary of key requirements:
  DfE confirms further details on the Inclusive Early Years Fund

High Needs Capital Allocations

Capital funding for LAs to create new SEND and AP places and improve existing provision across the 0–25 age range.

• Main guidance page:
  High needs provision capital allocations – GOV.UK
• Detailed guidance (what funding can be used for):
  High needs provision capital allocations: guidance
• 2026–27 memorandum of understanding:
  High needs provision capital allocation 2026 to 2027 – MoU

Expert at Home Grant (Experts at Hand)

Funding for LAs (with ICB partners) to provide specialist education and health expertise into mainstream settings without requiring EHCPs.

• Official funding guidance (2026–27):
  Experts at Hand & Local Authority SEND Transformation Fund – GOV.UK
• Sector briefing and interpretation:
  Government unveils £429m ‘Experts at Hand’ offer

Transformation Grant (SEND Transformation Funding)

Part of the combined Experts at Hand & SEND Transformation Fund, supporting system-wide reform, workforce, and delivery infrastructure.

• Included within the same guidance:
  Experts at Hand & Local Authority SEND Transformation Fund – GOV.UK
• Context within wider SEND reform investment:
  DfE announces SEND reform spending plan

Birmingham Experts at Hand

Birmingham is developing a new district-based Experts at Hand model to strengthen inclusive practice in mainstream schools and settings. Working alongside the Inclusion House digital platform, the model aims to help schools access the right support earlier, build staff confidence, and respond more effectively to SEND need.

The model will provide targeted, multidisciplinary support through district teams, including educational psychology, specialist teaching, speech and language therapy, therapy services, outreach, and parent ambassador support.

It is being developed across Birmingham’s 10 local area districts, with Hodge Hill acting as an early testbed to help refine how the approach works in practice.

By bringing expertise closer to mainstream settings, the model is designed to help schools identify and respond to need earlier, strengthen inclusive practice, and reduce the need for escalation.

Learning from district-level support will also be used to strengthen the wider universal offer through Inclusion House, helping to make effective practice more consistently available across the city.

We are inviting representatives from Early Years settings, schools and FE providers to join the Experts at Hand Steering Group as key partners in shaping how this support develops, strengthens inclusion, builds workforce capacity, and improves outcomes for children and young people with SEND.

To share your feedback, find out more or express an interest in joining the Steering Group, please contact Pauline Bromfield (Pauline.Bromfield@birmingham.gov.uk) or Heather Wood (Heather.Wood@birmingham.gov.uk), who will be leading this multi-agency group.

Listening to parent carers as we prepare for SEND reform

Over recent weeks, colleagues from across SEND, alongside our partners, have held a series of engagement sessions with parent carers to listen to their experiences and hear their questions about the national SEND reforms. These sessions took place both in person and online and brought together teams including SENDIASS, the Birmingham Parent Carer Forum and SEND Socials, creating space for open and honest discussion.

Overall, parent carers welcomed the ambition behind the reforms and the aim of a more consistent and inclusive system. At the same time, they raised some clear and recurring themes, including the need for greater clarity on how reforms will work in practice, questions about the assessment process, confidence that support will be delivered consistently, concerns about capacity and training across the system, including in schools, the importance of mental health and wellbeing, and ensuring that no children fall through gaps.

This feedback is being shared to help inform our collective preparation for reform and to support learning and improvement across the system. As a next step, we will create opportunities for schools to explore these themes with us in more detail, ask questions, and reflect together on what they mean for us locally as we prepare for reform. Further information on this will follow.

Show Us What Inclusion Looks Like – Through Pupils’ Eyes

The deadline for submissions is Friday 5 June 2026.

Full details, including examples and simple submission guidance, are available in the Inclusion Gallery poster.

We’re inviting Birmingham schools and settings to take part in a city‑wide Inclusion Gallery at the Attendance & Inclusion Conference taking place on 16/17 June, sharing what inclusion looks and feels like through the eyes of children and young people. This is a simple, creative opportunity for pupils of any age or phase to express their experiences, values and ideas about belonging, using images and their own words.

Schools and settings are invited to submit up to three images. Each contribution should include one photo or drawing created by pupils, along with a short caption (one to two sentences) written in the pupil’s own words. When submitting, schools should choose one prompt for pupils to respond to: either “What helps you feel happy, safe and that you belong at your school or setting?” or “If inclusion was a picture, what would it look like in Birmingham?”

Taking part offers a positive way to celebrate inclusive practice already happening across the city. Pupils’ work will be displayed at a city‑wide conference, ensuring children and young people’s voices are not only heard, but also seen.

Entries should be emailed to InclusionGallery@birmingham.gov.uk and include the name of your school or setting, up to three images cropped and ready for print, and a separate caption file for each image. Selected contributions will be featured in the Inclusion Gallery.

If you have any questions, please contact Ann Scott, Partnership Inclusion Manager, at Ann.Scott@birmingham.gov.uk.

The Early Years Ordinarily Available Guidance (OAG) now available online!

The Early Years Ordinarily Available Guidance (OAG) is now online:  localofferbirmingham.co.uk/online-ordinarily-available-guidance  

The OAG is full of ‘things you can try’. These are simple, practical ideas to help you support children in your setting, especially when a child might need a bit more help.

It also helps parents and carers understand what support should be in place.

It can be used to:

• Help everyone include every child
• Help you see what is working and what to try next
• Help you work well with families

We’d like your feedback

This guidance will keep growing and improving over time. We’d love to hear what is working well and what could be better. Please explore the site with your team, try it out in your setting, and share it with others you work with.

Please send any feedback to: senconoticeboard@birmingham.gov.uk

Share your practice

We are also building a library of helpful ideas and examples. If you have something that works well in your setting, we would love to hear from you. This could be a routine, a resource, or something you do to support children. We can share these to help other settings across the city.

If you’d like to get involved, please email: senconoticeboard@birmingham.gov.uk

SENDIASS – Service Update

Mark Paine has recently joined as Service Lead for SENDIASS (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Information, Advice and Support Service).

SENDIASS provides free, confidential and impartial information, advice and support to children and young people with SEND, and their parents and carers across Birmingham. The service helps families to understand their rights, make sense of SEND processes, and feel more confident about the choices available to them.

The service plays an important role in Birmingham’s SEND system, offering clear, practical guidance and independent support. This includes helping families to prepare for meetings, understand their options and have their voices heard. SENDIASS does not tell families what to do but supports them to make informed decisions and signposts to other services where needed.

Recent feedback from parents and carers highlights the difference this support is making:

“They are an invaluable service for families navigating the SEND system.”
“We finally feel like somebody is on our side, offering sound advice.”
“I found them professional and very helpful.”

Under Mark’s leadership, the service will continue to build on this important work. Mark brings both professional expertise and personal lived experience of navigating the SEND system, which shapes the service’s approach to engaging with and supporting families.

Schools may wish to signpost families to SENDIASS where independent advice and support would be helpful.

More information is available at: www.birminghamsendiass.co.uk