Strengthen inclusion across your area
Support more children and young people to succeed in mainstream settings where appropriate, easing demand on specialist services and ensuring specialist provision is used where it has the greatest impact.
Thrive gives your schools and services a shared way to assess need, plan support and track progress. It builds on the work already happening across your area, so fewer children reach crisis point, more needs are met confidently in mainstream, and specialist support is used more effectively.
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Why local authorities choose Thrive
Helping local authorities strengthen mainstream inclusion, reduce pressure on specialist provision and plan support across their area with greater confidence.
01
Capacity
Build mainstream capacity and reduce reliance on specialist provision
Help schools handle a wider range of needs in day-to-day practice. This reduces pressure on specialist services by preventing issues from escalating into exclusions, persistent absence and high-cost placements.
02
early identification
Identify need earlier, before it escalates
Help staff recognise and respond to emerging needs earlier, so support begins sooner and fewer children reach crisis point or require statutory assessment.
03
scale and consistency
Create consistency across your system
Bring schools and services onto the same page in how they understand and respond to behaviour and wellbeing, creating a shared approach that supports consistency while allowing for differences in context.
04
intelligent planning
Understand need across your area and plan with confidence
See patterns of need, where pressure is building and where support is working. Use this to make better decisions about resources, manage demand on the high needs block and plan provision with greater confidence.
The evidence behind it
The Thrive Approach has been independently evaluated by ImpactEd through a large-scale analysis of over 2,600 schools and a two-year mixed-methods study.
Schools using Thrive show:
For local authorities, this provides robust external evidence to support inspection, strengthen inclusion and SEND strategy, and manage demand on the high needs block more sustainably, with exclusions reductions linked to up to £34 million in long-term public value.
case studies
Real Examples of Local Authorities Embedding Thrive
Halton Borough Council
Improving Emotional Wellbeing Across a Whole Local Authority
With schools facing growing pressure around behaviour, attendance and children’s mental health, Halton Borough Council partnered with Thrive to strengthen emotional wellbeing support across the borough.
The local authority invested in Thrive training and resources for schools, giving staff the tools to identify pupils’ social and emotional needs early and put the right support in place before difficulties escalated.
In the first year, 110 educators across 45 schools were trained as Thrive Licensed Practitioners, supporting more than 20,000 children and young people. Schools have reported stronger in-school support, improved staff confidence and a reduction in exclusions across the borough.
Halton is now continuing to build on this work, embedding Thrive across its schools as part of a long-term commitment to helping children feel safe, supported and ready to learn.
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Barking & Dagenham Thrive Hub
Strengthening Social and Emotional Support Across a Borough
Barking and Dagenham’s Thrive Hub is helping schools across the borough strengthen support for children and young people’s social and emotional wellbeing.
Led by Katie Parks and Nicola Gough, the Hub builds on the expertise of local Thrive Schools of Excellence, offering guidance, training, Family Thrive and practical support to schools embedding the Approach.
Through shared practice and close work with children, families and staff, the Hub is helping to create a stronger Thrive community across Barking and Dagenham.
The borough is now continuing to grow this network, giving practitioners more opportunities to connect, share ideas and build Thrive into everyday school life.
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What Thrive looks like in practice
Thrive gives you a practical way to build consistency across schools and services, while giving you visibility of need and impact across your area.
It works alongside and strengthens existing approaches, helping bring them together into a more connected and coherent system. It works through two core elements:
Staff develop a shared understanding of what drives behaviour and how to respond. This strengthens everyday practice in classrooms and pastoral teams, so more needs are met early and confidently, with approaches shaped by the context of each school and community.
Thrive-Online supports assessment, planning and progress tracking across all settings, so you can see patterns of need, what support is in place, and the difference it is making.
Through Thrive-Online, you can:
- Consistent approach across teams and settings
- Clearer understanding of what's working
- Better visibility of need and impact
Together with our training, these create a more connected and coherent approach, with clear oversight across groups of schools.
Learn more about Thrive-OnlineChoose the right approach for your priorities
Whole area rollout
Build a consistent approach across your maintained schools.
- Licensed Practitioner training across schools
- Thrive-Online for shared visibility and oversight
- Alignment with SEND, attendance and inclusion strategy
Targeted programmes or pilots
Focus on a specific priority or group.
- SEND, attendance, behaviour or vulnerable cohorts
- Defined outcomes and success measures
- Aligned to grant funding or local priorities
Blended approach
Start where the pressure is highest, while building toward wider consistency.
- Combine targeted work with wider rollout
- Balance immediate pressures with longer-term change
Funding and delivery options
Local authorities typically combine direct investment with levy-funded apprenticeships.
We’ll work with you to shape an approach that fits your priorities, funding, and timescales, so you can make progress now while building longer-term capacity across your system.
Book a strategic conversationInsights for local authority leaders
Recent reports, webinars and insights for local authority leaders.
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The Schools White Paper & Inclusion at Scale: How ready is your trust to deliver?
In this session, Tom Preston, Viv Trask-Hall and Liz Murray will share what they’re seeing across the system and what seems to be making a difference.
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Thrive & ImpactEd's Inclusion Readiness in Schools Report Snapshot
Based on a survey of over 1,000 educators, learn more about how ready they feel to deliver inclusion and what's getting in the way.
Guide to improving attendance
A practical guide to strengthening attendance through emotionally informed practice.