How can a school set up an inclusion base?

Inclusion bases are becoming a bigger part of how mainstream schools support pupils with SEND. In June 2026, the DfE published new guidance on what they should look like and how they should work. The plan is for every secondary school to have one eventually, with a matching number of places in primary schools.

But setting one up isn’t a quick job, and the guidance is clear that it shouldn’t be rushed. Here’s what an inclusion base is, and the steps a school takes to set one up properly.

What an inclusion base is

An inclusion base is a dedicated space in a mainstream school. It gives targeted teaching and specialist support to pupils who need more than the usual classroom offer, while keeping them part of the wider school.

A few things are non-negotiable in the new guidance. A base must be run by a qualified teacher. It must never be used as a sanction or a way to remove a pupil from class. And pupils using it should get the same access to a qualified teacher as their peers in mainstream lessons.

The DfE talks about bases sitting on a continuum. At one end, pupils spend most of their time in mainstream classes and use the base for support. At the other, they do most of their learning in the base itself. Schools are told to reflect on where their provision sits, and to lean towards models that keep pupils in mainstream classes as much as possible.

There are two types. Support bases are commissioned and funded by schools, trusts, or groups of schools. Specialist bases are commissioned and funded through the local authority. These line up with the new tiers of SEND support: targeted plus support is delivered in support bases, and specialist support in specialist bases.

Start with the universal offer, not the base

This is the part schools often want to skip. Don’t.

The guidance is firm that a strong, high-quality offer across the whole school comes first. Good teaching that works for every pupil, calmer classrooms, and inclusive practice as standard. The DfE calls this a key pre-requisite for an effective base.

The reason is simple. If the wider school isn’t inclusive, a base ends up carrying pupils it was never meant to, and it can start to feel like a separate, isolating place. Get the universal offer right first, and the base can do the job it’s actually for.

So before setting anything up, look honestly at your whole-school provision. Fix what needs fixing there before you build a base on top of it.

The steps to set one up

Here’s roughly how the process works.

1. Understand your cohort. A base has to be designed around a particular group of pupils in mind. Start by identifying the barriers to learning your pupils actually face. Use classroom observations, assessments, attendance and behaviour data, conversations with staff, and input from families and outside professionals. Don’t just rely on existing diagnoses or EHC plans.

2. Decide what the base is for. Once you know your cohort, work out the intent. What needs will it meet? Where does it sit on that continuum, closer to an inclusive service or a specialist space? The design of the base should follow from this, not the other way round.

3. Sort out commissioning and funding. Work out who’s involved in the decision to open it. For a support base, that’s usually the school, trust, or a local group of schools. For a specialist base, the local authority. Funding can come from a few places: the Inclusive Mainstream Fund, High Needs Provision Capital Allocations, and your own core budget or reserves. Be realistic here, as this is where a lot of the pressure sits.

4. Get the workforce right. Day-to-day responsibility sits with a teacher. Where curriculum content or interventions are delivered, a teacher leads them. Where a pupil needs therapeutic, pastoral, or medical input, that’s led by an appropriately qualified professional. Plan your staffing and training around this from the start.

5. Plan the physical space. Locate the base close to mainstream classes and shared spaces like the hall or playground, ideally in the same building. It should feel part of the school, not tucked away. Think about support spaces for small-group work, one-to-one, sensory needs, assessment, and emotional regulation. You might need a separate entrance or specialist equipment, but design it so it still supports an inclusive approach.

6. Align timetables. Where you can, match the base timetable to mainstream classes so pupils can move between the two. For example, running maths at the same time in both. This makes it easier to maximise time in mainstream lessons.

7. Build in monitoring. Set clear outcomes and track them. Attendance, progress, wellbeing, belonging, and how much time pupils actually spend in mainstream classes. Where a school has a base, Ofsted inspects it as part of the school inspection, so you’ll need to show it’s working. Local authorities are also expected to quality assure specialist bases.

A few honest points

The guidance is non-statutory, so it’s advice rather than law. But it’s a strong signal of what the DfE expects, and Ofsted will be looking at it.

Funding is the sticking point. School leaders and unions have raised real concerns that the money doesn’t match the ambition. Setting up a base well costs more than a fund allocation alone, so plan your budget carefully and don’t assume one pot will cover it.

And the evidence from parents is mixed. In the DfE’s own research, a good number of families reported positive experiences, but a meaningful minority didn’t, usually where the base couldn’t meet their child’s needs or the child felt cut off from the rest of the school. That’s the risk to design out. A base only works if it genuinely includes pupils, rather than quietly separating them.

Where to start

If your school is thinking about an inclusion base, the honest first step isn’t the base at all. It’s a clear look at your whole-school inclusion and where the gaps are. From there, understanding your cohort and being realistic about funding and staffing will tell you what kind of base, if any, is right for you.

It’s a big piece of work, and getting the design right matters more than moving fast. If you’d like support thinking it through, from reviewing your universal offer to planning the base itself, it’s worth getting advice early.