Inclusion Support Offer
Support for Education Professionals
Our Inclusion Support Offer for professionals working within educational settings is built on two key elements: our Inclusive Mainstream Practice Model and our Experts at Hand Services, alongside a remodelled of existing local authority and health support. Bringing these elements together is essential to demonstrate how they align and complement one another, creating a comprehensive Cheshire East Inclusion Support Offer.
This integrated approach ensures that every school and setting has access to a dedicated inclusion support offer comprising a broad range of professional expertise. The service supports inclusive practice, early intervention, and access to specialist advice, ensuring that all schools and settings receive a universal package of support. It also provides a clear pathway to additional support when required as part of the graduated approach and prior to consideration of an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).
By combining these approaches, we promote consistency of practice alongside fairness and transparency in the allocation of resources. Ultimately, this model enables early intervention, helps prevent the escalation of need, and improves outcomes for all children and young people.
Our approach is organised through locality-based delivery, aligned with the Families First reforms and our Best Start in Life Plan. This enables us to develop both a "Team Around the School/Setting" and a "Team Around the Locality", strengthening relationships and collaboration at every level.
Working in this way supports a deeper understanding of the unique strengths, challenges, and priorities within and across Cheshire East. It ensures that targeted support is responsive to the needs of individual schools and settings, while also reflecting the wider local context. The model also creates opportunities for schools and settings to work more closely together by sharing resources, expertise, and effective practice, and by developing innovative and collaborative approaches to inclusion that meet the needs of children and young people within their locality.
Structure of the Inclusion Support Offer
The Cheshire East Inclusion Support Offer is organised around four localities: North 1, North 2, South 1 and South 2. Each locality has a dedicated multidisciplinary team.
Support for Education Professionals (PDF, 370KB)
Inclusion Support Team
The Inclusion Support Team supports schools, settings and SENCOs across Cheshire East to develop inclusive practice and improve outcomes for children and young people.
The team provides strategic advice, practical support, training and guidance on the Inclusion Framework, Toolkit for Inclusion and Graduated Approach. They work closely with schools to review practice, build staff confidence and share effective inclusive approaches. The team also facilitates SENCO networks, Spotlight on Inclusion events and inclusion training, helping to strengthen collaboration and ensure more children can successfully thrive in mainstream education.
You can find more information about the wider Inclusion Support team on Livewell
Cheshire East Autism Team
The Cheshire East Autism Team (CEAT) is a small multi-disciplinary team of committed professionals who have a wealth of knowledge and experience in neurodivergence in general, and autism in particular. They work on the principle that neurodivergence is a human strength and that the differences of our neurodivergent children and young people should be celebrated. They provide a service to Cheshire East maintained schools and academies, offering advice and support to all staff working with pupils with Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) or other related neurodivergent differences. Their aim is to ensure that neurodivergent students are successfully included so that they can thrive in our schools and reach their full potential.
You can find out more information about our wider Cheshire East Autism service on Livewell
Educational Psychology
The Cheshire East Educational Psychology Service delivery model within Experts at Hand provides earlier, preventative access to psychological expertise through a locality-based approach focused on inclusion, capacity building and early intervention. Every school will have a named link Educational Psychologist and Assistant Educational Psychologist, alongside termly person-centred planning meetings to identify priorities and plan support. The service offers training, consultation, supervision and workforce development to strengthen schools.
You can find out more about our wider Educational Psychology Service on Livewell
Sensory Inclusion Service
The Sensory Inclusion Service (SIS), supports over 400 children and young people with hearing and/or visual impairments and their families from diagnosis through to leaving school.
Referrals are received from health professionals and parents, with support tailored according to established eligibility criteria and individual needs.
The service offers specialist advice, assessment, training, multi-agency liaison, and access to specialist equipment to help educational settings meet the needs of children with sensory impairments.
The overall aim is to ensure children and young people with sensory impairments can access appropriate support, achieve positive outcomes, and participate fully in education.
You can find out more information about our wider Sensory Inclusion service including visual impairment and hearing impairment on Livewell
Special Schools
The Special School outreach service is a coordinated Cheshire East outreach service that provides specialist advice, coaching, modelling and practical support to help mainstream schools build inclusive practice and meet pupils' needs effectively.
Schools can access support through the Inclusion Forum referral process, with requests reviewed and matched to the most appropriate specialist provision before impact is reviewed.
The service draws on expertise from a network of specialist schools across Cheshire East, covering areas such as cognition and learning, autism, communication and interaction, SEMH, physical and sensory needs, and alternative provision.
The overall aim is to provide early, practical support that builds schools' confidence and capacity, leaving sustainable inclusive practices in place rather than creating dependency on external services
Parent Carer
A Parent Carer Forum (PCF) locality rep will offer coffee mornings to schools to let parents and carers know about the PCF and what we do, they will be able to offer directional support and also be able to provide information on PCF training and events. They will attend the local offer coffee mornings alongside other professionals and aid feeding back the parent voice and views to professionals to assist in strategic meetings and decisions.
Healthy Young Minds
Just Drop-In and Visyon are key partners in Cheshire East’s Healthy Young Minds offer, providing free early help, emotional wellbeing and mental health support for children and young people. Just Drop-In supports young people in North Cheshire East through counselling, wellbeing services, and support for parents and carers, helping them build resilience, confidence and positive mental health. Visyon delivers support across Central and South Cheshire East, offering one-to-one therapy, mentoring, family support, therapeutic groups, school-based support and parent workshops to promote emotional wellbeing and prevent mental health difficulties from escalating. Together, these services provide accessible, community-based support that helps children, young people and their families get the right help at the right time.
You can find out more about Visyon and Just Drop-In on Livewell.
Speech and Language Therapy - SALT
The Experts at Hand SALT offer within Cheshire East will aim to be a locality-based inclusion model giving settings earlier access to specialist speech and language expertise, consultation, coaching and workforce development. The offer will aim to enhance, and not replace the current Speech and Language Therapy Service. Experts at Hand will support with consultation, coaching, inclusion support and workforce development sitting alongside the specialist offer, reaching settings and staff before a referral is needed.
Settings will see:
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SALT Support Hub - tailored advice following request for help from settings
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Communication champions within settings
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SALT presence at Inclusion forums/ SENCO cluster meetings/Parent-carer coffee mornings
- Training and coaching
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Communication audits Multi-agency problem solving
- We will release further communication as we implement the service. Information will be available via our SALT service website.
You can see details of our broader Speech and Language Therapy Service on Livewell.
Occupational Therapy Including SPOTSS
The Expert at Hand OT offer will look to provide a locality based inclusion model, combining both a sensory processing and functional skills offer. This will provide settings with earlier access to Occupational Therapy expertise, consultation, coaching and workforce development. The offer will aim to enhance, and not replace the current SPOTSS / Occupational Health services locally. The offer will include:
We will release further communication as we implement the service. Information will be available via our our SPOTSS website and the paediatric physiotherapy and occupational therapy services website:
0-19 SEND Health Service
SEND 0-19+ health practitioners (On behalf of health visitor/school nursing services Cheshire East) offer bookable appointments for parents for support and guidance with all SEND related issues impacting on sleep, behaviour, toileting and emerging concerns around development. Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) - health advice sessions in Cheshire East - Wirral
Multiagency working
As part of our Inclusion Support Offer, there are a range of opportunities that promote collaborative, multi-agency working across each locality. These opportunities support the sharing of expertise, strengthen professional networks, and help ensure a coordinated approach to inclusive practice for children and young people with SEND.
These opportunities include:
- SENCO Networks
Providing opportunities for SENCOs to develop knowledge, share effective practice, and strengthen professional partnerships. See details on our SEND and inclusion training page that includes:
- SENCO Development Days
- SENCO Twilight Sessions
Booking Information
- Spotlight on Inclusion Briefings
Focused sessions designed to share effective practice, explore key aspects of inclusion, and develop collaborative approaches across education, health, and care services.
Bookings via the Cheshire East Hub
- Inclusion Forums
The purpose of both the Early Years Forum and the Inclusion Forum is to bring together professionals from across agencies to promote early intervention, share expertise, and drive inclusive support for children and young people with identified SEND needs.
Multi-Agency Locality Meetings
Locality teams meet on a half-termly basis to share good practice, identify emerging needs, and coordinate targeted support for schools and settings that would benefit from a more intensive, collaborative approach. These meetings help ensure that resources and expertise from across services are used effectively to improve outcomes for children and young people.
Intended Impact
Through strengthened locality partnerships and effective multi-agency collaboration, schools and settings will have increased access to expertise, support, and professional development opportunities, enabling them to build more inclusive environments and deliver improved outcomes for children and young people with SEND.
Page last reviewed: 27 October 2026
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