Inclusion Outreach Service

The Chiltern School Inclusion Outreach team

What is the Inclusion Outreach Service?

We work collaboratively with mainstream schools and Additionally Resourced Provisions in Central Bedfordshire to build capacity and confidence in meeting the needs of a wider range of children and young people with SEND. 

Our service supports pupils whose primary area of need is Communication & Interaction. No diagnosis is required for referral to the service. 

We aim to support schools in meeting the needs of children/young people in Year 1 to Year 11 who require support beyond Ordinarily Available Provision. We also work with pupils in Reception who have an EHCP.

The south of the locality is covered by The Chiltern School outreach team; the north of the locality is covered by the Ivel Valley outreach team.

Our advice is informed by the SCERTS (Social Communication Emotional Regulation Transactional Support) approach.

What is SCERTS?

SCERTS is a research-based, neurodiversity-affirming framework for supporting children with Communication and Interaction needs, including autism. 

The model helps families, teachers, and therapists collaborate to develop personalised plans that promote a child’s social communication and emotional regulation skills by focusing on their unique strengths and interests. 

SCERTS includes three developmental stages – Social Partner, Language Partner and Conversational Partner. 

Training opportunities for school staff (Introduction to SCERTS and training sessions relating to each of the three partner stages) are available to book on Learning Managment System 

For further information and resources relating to SCERTS, please see the Inclusion Outreach padlet 

Outreach Support Available 

We offer mainstream schools a broad range of support to develop their inclusive practice and implement SCERTS. 

• Good Practice Visits (opportunities for mainstream staff to spend time in classes at The Chiltern School, to observe practice and ask questions).
• SCERTS Implementation meetings (1:1 meetings offered to SENDCos following completion of Introduction to SCERTS training, to establish their current position and next steps in SCERTS implementation).
• SCERTS Enhanced Support visits (visits to schools by an experienced practitioner from The Chiltern School, to model approaches, provide advice and give feedback on practice). 
• Partner Stage Learning Communities (a half-termly opportunity for SENDCos to access training, support and networking to develop their practice in meeting the needs of pupils at specific Partner stages).
• Group consultations (where strategic advice is required for a group of pupils with similar needs, for example, within an Inclusion Base). 
• Individual pupil consultations (where required and appropriate).
• Implementation support (follow up implementation support with an Outreach teacher). 

Contact and referral

For schools seeking support for multiple pupils, please contact sendoutreach@chiltern.beds.sch.uk prior to submitting any referrals. If you are unsure if our service is the most appropriate for your needs, please also contact us prior to referral. 

Individual referrals – The school needs to provide at least two cycles of the Assess/Plan/Do/Review process, examples of documents for this purpose are a SEND Support Plan, an Individual Education Plan (IEP), Provision Map or equivalent.

Schools can submit their referrals via the Central Bedfordshire Single Referral Form

All other enquiries – please email sendoutreach@chiltern.beds.sch.uk