5 Steps to effective interventions

The term ‘intervention’ describes a short-term, focused teaching programme with specific intended outcomes aimed at individuals or small groups of pupils with particular needs.

Interventions are provided in addition to high quality teaching in the classroom and are an essential part of the additional provision you offer pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

There are a number of structured intervention programmes available that aim to support and develop pupils’ key skills. Some of these can make a real difference to outcomes – but others can be costly, time-consuming, and ineffective.

As such, it's important to carefully consider strategic choices and ensure you plan interventions effectively. Here are our top tips:

1. Clarify the outcomes

The first thing you need to do when planning your interventions is to identify what you want your pupils to achieve by the end of the intervention. This will be based on knowledge of your SEND population and by considering the following questions:

• What are the main areas of need among our SEND population?
• What are the key areas we need to focus on, and the key skills we need to target?
• Which pupils will benefit from this type of intervention?

Using the right software can help you with this. Tes' Provision Map compares your school percentages with national percentages, providing you with an overview of your school's main areas of need.

This also helps you to identify any mismatches between your school's need and your current provision.

2. Choose the interventions

If you identify gaps in your provision – or if you decide your current interventions are not effective – it's key to choose alternative interventions using an evidence-informed approach.

Provision mapping software such as Provision Map contains a comprehensive database of common interventions, which is useful to draw from when choosing a new intervention.

The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) also provides guidance on choosing interventions for pupils with SEND.

The EEF has also trialled a range of programmes that show promise in raising attainment – these evidence-based programmes support high-quality teaching and targeted academic support, as well as some school-wide strategies.

Many interventions are likely to be delivered by teaching assistants (TAs). The EEF's Deployment of Teaching Assistants report outlines some common elements of effective interventions:

• Sessions are brief (15-45 minutes), regular (3-5 times per week), and take place over a sustained period (8-20 weeks)
• TAs receive extensive training from experienced trainers or teachers
• Interventions have structured, supporting resources and lesson plans, with clear objectives and if needed, a delivery script

The EEF also recommends the following:

• Live assessments should be used to identify pupils who need support, guide areas for focus and track progress
• Connections should be made between the intervention and regular classroom teaching

3. Plan implementation

Before starting any intervention, check that staff involved in delivery are knowledgeable, well trained and understand expectations.

Where interventions are being delivered by TAs, the teacher should still retain overall responsibility and work closely with the TA to plan and assess the impact of the interventions.

Practical questions to consider when planning implementation include:

• When will the interventions take place?
• How will interventions affect pupils’ timetables?
• How will staff time be managed?
• Where will the intervention take place?
• How will resources be managed?
• How will parents and other members of staff be informed about the progress of the intervention?
• What feedback is expected after each session?

Crucially, you should clarify what baseline assessments will be carried out, and when and how assessments will be repeated in order to track progress over time.

It's also important to avoid implementing too many new interventions at once; quality is more valuable than quantity.

4. Record your interventions

Using a provision mapping platform will enable you to record all the interventions you have in place, providing an ‘at a glance’ view of additional provision across the school.

You can choose interventions from within the provision library or easily add your own by recording details of:

• The intervention type
• Intended outcomes
• Schedule details
• Assigned staff

When individual learning plans are created for pupils, details of the appropriate interventions can be included on the plan, alongside their targets.

Another useful aspect of the provision mapping process is the ability to put a cost on interventions.

This enables you to not only demonstrate how much you are spending on individual pupils, but also consider whether or not particular interventions are proving value for money. Provision Map enables you to manage intervention costings.

5. Monitor and evaluate the impact

Proving the effectiveness of an intervention can be tricky, but is the crucial final step in ensuring an effective intervention plan in your school.

The impact of any intervention can be determined by looking at the progress each pupil has made towards the intervention's objectives and assessing how well pupils have developed the desired skills.

Provision Map enables you to assign a score to each intervention, so you can clearly show impact on pupil learning. Scores for a particular type of intervention can be amalgamated to produce an overall impact score.

This helps you determine whether the intervention is effective and should be used again.

If you decide that an intervention has been effective, it's important you determine what went well and how this example of good practice could be shared across your school or trust.

However, if it’s not effective, it's important to stop using the intervention or make changes – you can then repeat the process to measure how effective these changes are.

Evaluating and reviewing your interventions regularly as part of your strategic provision management process should help you to develop a successful intervention plan that has real impact on your pupils with SEND.

Simplify your SEND provision

Provision Map supports you to improve student outcomes while giving your SENCOs 20% of their time back. The platform puts all your SEND provision in one place, so you can map and manage provision effectively and efficiently.

Download our free guide to the platform to learn more about Provision Map in action and explore the benefits it could have for your school.

Read the guide

Article updated April 2026