Q3. How can we ensure that children are best supported by the Universal offer?

The context: the Universal Offer aims to increase inclusion in all mainstream settings (for children aged 0-25) by funding SEND training for teachers, requiring all schools to produce an ‘Inclusion Strategy’, prioritising early intervention, creating a safe and respectful culture, strengthening partnerships with families and wider services, and improving accessibility for children with neurodivergence, disabilities and other types of SEN.

In your answer, you may want to consider:

• The importance of training for all education professionals on the impact of early life trauma, disrupted attachments and care experience and the intersection of these issues with SEND.
• The need for settings to have whole-setting approach to supporting and including children who have experienced trauma and attachment disruption, including using relational approaches, modifying the environment, learning from the expertise of carers and parents, and knowing when to refer children to specialist support.
• Two thirds of adopted secondary school-aged children report being teased or bullied at school for issues relating to adoption (Adoption Barometer, 2025). Creating a safe and respectful culture in schools will require addressing lack of knowledge and understanding about care experience and adoption and addressing bullying related to these life experiences seriously.
• Many care-experienced children will miss out on consistently accessing the universal offer during the early years due to instability and moves through the care system. This can delay the identification of SEND. Training for early years staff must include how to recognise issues arising from trauma and attachment disruption and their interaction with SEND to support early identification of needs. Measures should be in place to support early identification of needs for those children who attend early years settings inconsistently or not at all.
• It is not clear how the £1.6 billion to be invested in inclusivity in mainstream education will interact with other funding sources, including pupil premium plus (PP+). Settings will benefit from clear guidance to direct the use of both the new Inclusive Mainstream Fund and PP+ to avoid duplication and reduce the risk of PP+ being absorbed into general funds and failing to support the children it is intended for.