Schools are under pressure to do more on inclusion. The government’s White Paper sets out a new expectation that every school develops layered approaches, including specialist or inclusion support bases.

But with no single blueprint to follow, how do headteachers actually build something that works?

New research from The Difference and the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) - drawing on data from 478 schools since 2022 - offers the most detailed picture yet of what effective internal provision actually looks like in practice. It’s one of the largest studies of its kind.

Here’s what the research tells schools about designing provision that actually makes a difference:

1. There’s no single ‘best’ structure

The evaluation couldn’t find a clear causal difference between schools using “embedded” versus “parallel” models of internal provision. Why? Because almost every school mixes both - tailoring, separating and reintegrating in flexible ways.

The work that really matters to what happens for young people is context‑ and relationship‑driven, not structure‑driven.

2. Nearly every school is doing something already

Even those schools labelled as having “undefined provision” were still running pastoral, relational or targeted support.

And that’s just as well, given that the White Paper says all schools must develop layered approaches to inclusion, and establish either specialist support bases or inclusion support bases as part of this.

3. Internal provision is about early, joined‑up practice

Across the 18 schools that we looked at in-depth with the NFER, the factors most often linked to better attendance or reduced exclusion were:

• Early identification and joined‑up systems between behaviour, special educational needs and disabilities, and pastoral teams. Is it an undiagnosed special need, something affecting their wellbeing like bereavement or challenges in the peer group, or a safeguarding concern?
   
• A sense of belonging and predictable, “safe” spaces in school.
   
• Active parental engagement, especially when communication focuses on strengths as well as concerns.
   
• Skilled staff with time and the right training to make sure that young people are getting the best, not the lowest quality provision in terms of staffing. One of The Difference headteachers made the decision to teach in their own inclusion base - a signal to staff and students alike about the value placed on that space.
  
  The NFER research highlighted the skills of being able to build strong, trusting relationships with young people, with an understanding of how trauma might be affecting their executive functioning or social and emotional skills.
   
• Reintegration processes that are gradual and prepared.

4. Balance the academic with pastoral

One additional thing that The Difference saw as crucial in our own, more extensive qualitative research into effective alternative provision was making sure that therapeutic and wellbeing support was matched with strong academic input for children in internal provision.

It’s no good just caring for a young person going through crisis: schools are schools and we need to maintain aspirations for these young people to learn and thrive.

In schools we’ve visited, the turning point for a young person is often something small - finishing a book, passing a maths milestone - that rebuilds the confidence eroded by repeated crises.

5. Measure what matters

Effective schools didn’t just run their inclusion base - they knew what it was for, and tracked whether it was working.

Not Ofsted-facing data collection, but genuinely useful measures: is this student’s sense of belonging improving? Are they spending more time in mainstream lessons than they were six weeks ago? Has their reading age moved?

In schools The Difference has worked with, that clarity of purpose - and the discipline to measure against it - is often what separates provision that transforms a young person’s trajectory from provision that simply contains them.

Overall, we’ve worked alongside school leaders building this kind of provision from the ground up in Newcastle, Salford, Nottingham, Bolton, Watford, Exeter and beyond.

What those schools have seen consistently is that when the conditions are right, internal provision can re-engage young people who had all but given up on school. When they’re not, it risks becoming - as some school staff put it - little more than a costly holding pen.

Kiran Gill is CEO of The Difference, a charity helping schools to become more inclusive