The government has said that, over time, every secondary school is expected to have an Inclusion Base.
For many secondary leaders, this expectation won’t feel entirely new. Targeted provision already exists in different forms across pastoral, SEND, behaviour, attendance and SEMH support
The new DfE guidance gives schools a clearer framework for reviewing that provision: whether it has a defined purpose, the right staffing, clear links to teaching and evidence of impact.
For a broader overview of Inclusion Bases in relation to the new DfE guidance, including who they’re for and how they fit within wider inclusion strategy planning, read our main guide: What are Inclusion Bases in schools? DfE guidance explained.
This article looks specifically at what the expectation means for secondary leaders: how to review what’s already in place, avoid creating another form of removal, connect support back into the classroom and show whether targeted provision is making a difference.
Review what already exists
Before thinking about creating something new, secondary leaders may need to look carefully at the support already in place.
Many schools already have pupils moving between pastoral, SEND, attendance, behaviour and safeguarding systems. A pupil may be known to several teams, but still not experience joined-up support day to day.
The guidance gives leaders a useful opportunity to ask whether existing provision is working as one coherent offer, or whether pupils are moving between disconnected responses.Useful questions include:
- Which pupils are accessing targeted support most often?
- What barriers is the provision intended to reduce?
- Is there a clear route in and out of support?
- How are decisions made about access?
- How are teachers involved?
- What evidence shows whether support is making a difference?
Without that clarity, there’s a risk that an Inclusion Base becomes a catch-all space for pupils who are finding school difficult. That may reduce immediate pressure, but it’s unlikely to create the longer-term change leaders are looking for.
Be clear what the base is there to achieve
Not every secondary school Inclusion Base will need to do the same job.
For some schools, the priority may be pupils who are repeatedly removed from lessons. For others, it may be pupils at risk of exclusion, pupils experiencing emotionally based school avoidance, or pupils whose social and emotional needs are affecting attendance, relationships or learning.
A base focused on attendance and reintegration may look very different from one designed around targeted SEMH support, specialist SEND provision or reducing repeated lesson removals.
That’s why the starting point should be the target cohort and intended outcomes, not the space itself.
Being clear about the role of the base will shape the practical decisions that follow, from staffing and training to access criteria, links with teachers and how progress is reviewed.
Avoid creating another form of removal
Inclusion Bases should never be used as a sanction. Government guidance is clear that they should act as a bridge to school life, not a barrier to it.
That distinction is particularly important in secondary schools, where internal exclusion, lesson removal and behaviour escalation can already place pupils at a distance from learning.
In the complex day-to-day reality of a secondary school, it’s understandable how an Inclusion Base could drift towards becoming a holding space, isolation room or informal removal route if its purpose isn’t clearly defined.
The guidance is clear, however, that Inclusion Bases shouldn’t become a separate school within the school, where pupils are supported in one space but remain disconnected from mainstream lessons, relationships and expectations elsewhere.
Leaders will need to communicate clearly that the base isn’t a way to pass responsibility elsewhere. It should strengthen classroom practice, not replace it.
For this to work well, staff need a shared understanding of how pupils access support, how progress is reviewed and how learning from the base informs everyday practice.
Make sure support carries into the classroom
An Inclusion Base will only work well if the support pupils receive there connects with the rest of the school day.
This can be a particular challenge in secondary settings, where pupils may move between several teachers, rooms and expectations. If strategies are understood only by the adults in the base, pupils can end up moving between two very different experiences of school.
Leaders may want to consider how information is shared with teachers, what support looks like when pupils return to lessons, and whether staff are using a shared understanding of pupils’ needs.
The aim should be a consistent thread between the base, the classroom and the wider pastoral, SEND and attendance systems already in place.
Think beyond supervision
Staffing an Inclusion Base isn’t just about who can manage the space.
The DfE guidance highlights the importance of a skilled, teacher-led team. It also says pupils accessing a base shouldn’t have less access to a qualified teacher than their peers in mainstream classes.
The adults leading or delivering support need the right expertise to understand pupils’ needs, plan support, adapt when something isn’t working and help pupils reconnect with learning. Where specialist input is needed, this should be led by someone appropriately qualified.
Where a base is supporting pupils with SEMH needs, emotionally based school avoidance, exclusion risk or repeated dysregulation, staff will need training, shared processes and the confidence to work closely with teachers and wider support teams.
A strong Inclusion Base shouldn’t depend on one excellent member of staff. It needs clear leadership, whole-school connection and agreed processes for reviewing progress and making decisions about pupils entering, leaving or continuing to access support.
Decide what success should look like
Leaders will need to show whether the base is reducing barriers, not simply moving pupils out of mainstream lessons.
A calm space may be part of the picture, but it isn’t the whole picture. Reduced incidents may also matter, but only if pupils are becoming more able to access learning and school life.
If the base reduces visible disruption but pupils remain disconnected from learning, attendance or relationships, it hasn’t solved the problem. It has moved it.
A stronger view of impact might include changes in attendance, lesson removals, reintegration, engagement, social and emotional development, pupil voice and family feedback.
The key question isn’t only “Is the base being used?” but “Is it helping pupils move closer to learning, relationships and participation?”
For secondary leaders, this evidence will be important not only for reviewing the base itself, but for understanding how provision supports the school’s inclusion priorities.
How Thrive can support targeted provision in secondary schools
Thrive can help schools strengthen targeted provision by building a clearer understanding of pupils’ social and emotional needs, and how these may be affecting learning, relationships, attendance or behaviour.
This is particularly relevant where schools are considering how an Inclusion Base, Thrive Room or targeted SEMH support space could work in practice. Thrive helps adults look beyond behaviour or presentation alone, understand what may be driving a pupil’s needs, and plan support through a relational, developmentally informed approach.
For mainstream secondary schools, Thrive’s Secondary SEMH Intervention package offers one practical way to do this. Although the package is rooted in SEMH expertise, it supports wider inclusion priorities too.
The package brings together Thrive Licensed Practitioner training and Thrive-Online. This helps schools assess and track need, plan support and review progress over time.
In many Thrive Schools, dedicated Thrive spaces or “Thrive Rooms” already form part of the school’s targeted support offer, often led or delivered by a Thrive Licensed Practitioner. But Thrive isn’t simply a room or a space. It provides the relational approach, training and online tools that help targeted provision work more consistently.
Through Thrive-Online, schools can build a clearer picture of pupils’ social and emotional needs, create targeted action plans and review progress over time. This can support more confident decisions about who accesses targeted provision, what support they receive, when that support needs to change and what impact it is having.
Thrive also helps staff work from a shared approach across the school. When staff across classrooms, corridors and targeted provision are working from a shared understanding of behaviour, need and regulation, pupils are less likely to experience the base as a separate system. Instead, the support they receive can be connected back into everyday school life.
Planning your next steps?
Before deciding whether to create, expand or review targeted provision, auditing and evaluating the current offer will help leaders identify a clear picture of pupils’ needs and the barriers affecting them.
Our inclusion strategy planning tool helps leadership teams map existing provision, identify barriers to learning and think through how targeted support, such as an Inclusion Base, Thrive Room or SEMH intervention, could fit into the school’s inclusion strategy.
It can also help bring together the thinking that will feed into the inclusion strategy schools receiving Inclusive Mainstream Fund allocations are expected to publish by 31 December 2026.
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