Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools (PINS) is an innovation project running nationally, and coordinated at a South Yorkshire ICB level.

What's the aim of the project?

The focus of the project is on innovation, drawing on specialist skills from across the local area to deliver whole school approaches that meet the needs of neurodiverse children. The aim is to identify what works - to help inform future Government policy.

The DfE said the project will work with schools to “move away from an emphasis on individual interventions and instead work towards approaches to teaching and learning that work for the whole cohort.” It will also support the move to provide greater financial sustainability, so that local systems deploy their resources effectively such that spending shifts towards early intervention.

The project will run between September 2024 and March 2025 and will then be evaluated in the summer term of 2025. Working closely with parents and local services, the 10 selected schools across the City of Doncaster involved in the project have been able to use the PINS self-assessment tool and student voice resources to identify some priority areas and development ideas. This will lead to a whole school CPD offer for each setting, e.g. the schools will have a joint network training day in November.

For the training offer we are working with local services to create the CPD package for each setting.

A school will receive five days’ worth of additional specialist support from occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, mental health practitioners, educational psychologists, specialist nurses or specialist teachers. This will include each school becoming Communication-Friendly Settings (CFS) with a comprehensive training offer with ELKLAN starting this term and running through to December 2025.

Doncaster Parents Voice have been visiting each of the 10 schools to build a relationship, working with them to survey parents/carers in each setting to build a picture of practice, and deepen the co-production with parents/carers so that they can more easily access support, feel that their voice is listened to, and have increased levels of trust/confidence in the system. Events (such as coffee mornings) are being set up in each school.​ 

Find out more: 

For more information contact Graeme Routledge, graeme.routledge@doncaster.gov.uk

Useful resources:

Find out more at these relevant websites.

ELKLAN Communication Friendly Settingsk

Doncaster Parents Voice

Schools Week article

 

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