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Updated:
May 29, 2026
Written By:
Liz Robson
School leaders, SENDCos, and pastoral leads, we know you are working hard to balance rising wellbeing needs, attendance priorities, and the demands of SEND reform. The upcoming Inclusive Mainstream Fund (IMF) is a valuable opportunity to resource your inclusion strategy and create a school environment where every pupil feels supported, connected, and ready to learn.
Navigating this new funding and meeting the December deadline to publish your Schools Inclusion Strategy can feel daunting, but you don't have to do it alone. We are here to help you prepare. The schools that plan to utilise this funding will be those who enter the new school year with a clear understanding of their current provision and a strategic plan ready to go.
Our programmes are designed to give you a clear roadmap to meet the December deadline with confidence. We'll support you in creating a sustainable, whole-school approach to wellbeing and inclusion that becomes embedded in your school's culture. Let us help you use this opportunity to build a school where every pupil can belong, feel confident, and thrive.
The Inclusive Mainstream Fund allocation is calculated using a formula based on components drawn from the National Funding Formula. For primary schools, this includes:
On average, primary schools receive around £14,000 per year, while secondary schools receive about £48,000 per year. If you'd like to know your school's exact allocation, your SENCO or Business Manager can easily calculate it for you using the calculator tool published on the DfE website.
This funding is designed to support your inclusion goals. By investing in one of our evidence-based wellbeing programmes, you can make a significant impact while still preserving the majority of your IMF budget for other important priorities. This gives you the flexibility to continue funding classroom adaptations, TA training, and other essential inclusion work.
You're likely already doing fantastic work toward your inclusion strategy through your existing SEND provision, pastoral care, and wellbeing initiatives. The December deadline is an opportunity to formalise this great work.
The process involves documenting your current provision, mapping it against the seven IMF themes, and publishing it as your school's official Inclusion Strategy. This isn't about starting from scratch; it's about recognising your strengths, seeing where your current efforts align, and identifying any areas that need a little more support.
When you audit your current whole-school approach to wellbeing, you might be surprised by how much you already have in place. An audit provides a clear, comprehensive picture of your practice, helping you pinpoint specific gaps. This is where our programmes can provide invaluable support.
Our evidence-based wellbeing and coaching programmes are designed to fill these gaps, strengthening your inclusion strategy and ensuring that your spending decisions are targeted, effective, and easy to justify.
The Department for Education expects schools to use the IMF to embed inclusive practice and develop a sustainable inclusion strategy. The fund is designed to support practices that are inclusive by design, structured around seven core areas:
These areas are intended to help schools strengthen their universal offer while also developing targeted, evidence-based support for pupils who need more than universal provision alone.
Our evidence-based programmes are designed to help you meet these requirements while fostering genuine connection, positive relationships and a stronger sense of belonging.
When mapping our provision against the IMF framework, two themes stand out as the strongest points of shared alignment across our programmes.
A safe and respectful culture fostering belonging and attendance, is at the heart of everything we do. This is often where schools feel the greatest pressure, especially around persistent absence, disengagement, low confidence and pupils who do not feel fully connected to school life.
Evidence-based support prioritising early intervention, is another strong area of alignment. Our programmes help schools put preventative support in place before needs escalate, while also building staff and pupil capacity over time.
High-quality teaching, is also supported through CPD, train-the-trainer resources and coaching-informed staff practice. While our work is rooted in wellbeing and inclusion, it helps staff develop the confidence, relational approaches, trauma-informed and adaptive responses that support pupils to access learning more effectively.
Here is how each programme supports your school’s strategic goals.
Wellbeing Club acts as a broad, strategic whole-school framework. It is the strongest anchor programme for schools that want to use the Inclusive Mainstream Fund to review, plan and embed a sustainable wellbeing and inclusion strategy.
It supports ambitious leadership and governance by giving leaders a clear structure for auditing current provision, identifying gaps and planning next steps. It also provides CPD, planning tools, practical resources and ongoing support to help schools build a consistent whole-school approach.
Wellbeing Club aligns strongly with six of the seven IMF themes. It helps schools strengthen early support, develop a safe and respectful culture, improve belonging and attendance, support staff confidence, and create a more inclusive universal offer. For leaders who need to evidence their provision to SLT, governors or trustees, it provides a clear and practical framework.
The Wellbeing Ambassadors Programme is a sustainable, train-the-trainer pupil leadership and peer support programme. It helps schools develop pupil voice, peer-led wellbeing activity and a stronger culture of belonging.
This aligns especially well with the IMF focus on accessible and enriching provision beyond the classroom, safe and respectful culture, early support, and pupil participation. By training pupils to lead campaigns, support positive relationships and help peers access support, schools create a practical route for pupils to shape inclusion from within the school community.
Wellbeing Ambassadors also gives leaders strong evidence of personal development, student leadership, inclusion and pupil voice. It helps pupils feel seen, heard and valued, which can support engagement, attendance and a stronger sense of connection to school.
Coach Training focuses on targeted early intervention and staff skill-building. It equips pastoral staff, teachers and school leaders with Positive Psychology Coaching skills to support young people more effectively.
This programme aligns strongly with the IMF focus on early, evidence-based support and high-quality, adaptive responses to pupil need. Staff learn practical skills that can help pupils build self-awareness, resilience, confidence and self-regulation. These skills are particularly useful for pupils who may be at risk of disengagement, absence or low wellbeing.
Coach Training also strengthens the way staff communicate with pupils. A coaching-informed approach can help build trust, improve relationships and support pupils to take positive steps forward. This makes it a valuable part of a wider inclusion strategy, especially where schools want to strengthen targeted support while building capacity within their own team.
Investing in evidence-based wellbeing and peer support is a strategic use of your Inclusive Mainstream Fund allocation. It helps you address key requirements without using the whole grant.
For many schools, one of our programmes would use only a small proportion of their annual allocation. This leaves the majority of funding available for other important priorities, including:
This is important because the IMF is not designed to fund one isolated activity. It is there to help schools build a joined-up inclusion strategy. Our programmes can provide a clear, evidence-informed foundation or fill specific gaps within your existing approach.
If you are not sure where to begin, the most helpful first step is to map your current provision against the 7 IMF themes. This gives you a clear picture of what is already in place, where your school is strong, and where further support would make the biggest difference.
From there, it becomes much easier to decide which programme is the best fit:
Each programme can stand alone, but they can also work together as part of a wider, sustainable wellbeing and inclusion strategy.
Your focus is on providing the best possible support for your pupils. Our role is to help make the planning, evidence and implementation process clearer and more manageable.
Whether your school is already part of our programmes or you're just beginning to explore your options, the best next step is a quick, supportive conversation with our team. We're here to help you understand your school’s exact IMF allocation, guide you through mapping your current provision against the 7 key themes, and provide you with a strategy template to significantly reduce your December workload.
Let us help you make this process clear and manageable. Get in touch today!
LAST UPDATED:
May 29, 2026
Listening to pupil voice is the core driver for strategic change that unlocks the insights needed to make your inclusion strategy a success.
LAST UPDATED:
May 29, 2026
Understand how our programmes help support you plan and deliver your school inclusion strategy
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