SEMH and Inclusion Advisory Service

Everyone who works in education and/or with children and young people is very aware of the increasing need for awareness, support and interventions relating to pupils’ social, emotion and mental health (SEMH).

The SEMH and Inclusion service is education-based and professional-facing, aiming to support and coach leaders and practitioners in schools to find solutions to the challenges we face supporting diverse individual needs related to SEMH and inclusion.

Our advisors offer advice to leaders, coaching for education professionals, CPD (whole school and focussed groups), work to create internal “Professional Learning Networks” and resources that collaborate with staff to find solutions that will work in school, for staff, pupils, leaders and stakeholders.

The service works closely with engaged schools individually to provide advice, guidance, support and CPD that the staff want and need to feel confident when working with pupils. This can include input on school policy, systems and processes in order to create SEMH informed and accepting environments that will proactively increase the probability of engagement and success for all pupils.

Service aims:

  • To increase the capacity of school leaders in planning and implementing strategies and practice relating to SEMH & Inclusion through building professional relationships and offering advice.
  • To create innovative and self-improving mechanisms within schools for long-term development and to sustainable improvement.
  • To improve support for school employees in their teaching and support of children presenting with responses which challenge which are a result of the challenges and barriers they face when engaging with education.
  • To improve the experiences of pupils in Derby City who require reasonable adjustments and interventions relating to SEMH and Inclusion so that there is an increase in and/or maintenance of their engagement with learning and attendance at school.
  • To create a baseline with available quantitative and qualitative data in order to focus strategy, target schools/areas and develop the necessary activities and resources to meet school needs and develop the Service’s offer.

Types of organisations worked with

The SEMH and Inclusion Service has worked and is working with:

  • Primary Schools
  • Secondary Schools
  • Specialist Schools
  • Academy Trusts
  • Derby City LA Workforce Development Programme
  • Derby City SENDCO Network
  • Holiday Activities and Food Club (HAF)
  • Sports Leaders
  • Derby University CivicLAB

Commissioning arrangements

The Service currently has commissioning arrangements with:

  • Derby City LA In Year Fair Access (IYFA) service for two days per week for Primary Schools in Derby City
  • Derby City LA SEND service to support and deliver workforce development in 15 schools in Derby City
  • Djanogly Learning Trust (DLT) and QEGSMAT to support15 schools in developing a trust-wide behaviour support strategy

Statistics

 

  • Number of schools engaged from June 2023 to May 2025: 59
  • Interactions: 1522
  • Leadership engagements: 229
  • Coaching sessions (introduced Sep 2024): 59
  • CPD sessions: 46
  • Attendance at CPD: 1028

 

Feedback (selection)

 

School leaders:

 

  • Staff feedback to me was that they really enjoyed the session and so did I, so thank you! – Behaviour Lead at Secondary School
  • Thank you SO much for the session yesterday. You really helped me out with sharing this important info with most of our teacher team here as I think they’re sick of listening to me! – Deputy Head at Infant and Nursery School
  • Thank you SO much – you are amazing. – Head at Infant School
  • Thank you so much for today, it was so useful and the heads have taken a lot away from it. – Head at Primary School
  • Thank you so much delivering your session, the staff found it really useful and welcomed the chance to talk it through. – SENCO at Secondary School
  • Thank you so much for your help and support. You are amazing. – SENCO at Primary School
  • Thanks so much for this morning – you have left us all with lots to think about – in a very positive way. – Deputy Head at Primary School

 

CPD Attendees:

 

  • Fantastic training, well delivered and extremely beneficial in my current role. Thank you.
  • Thank you for sharing your research, ideas and knowledge.
  • Very engaging presentation! Well delivered and great to have some real life examples (teacher vs student anger).
  • Very engaging session, well presented and loved <the> passion – Empowering.
  • It was fantastic. Absolutely loved it, it was such a good presentation, best one I’ve been to.
  • Absolutely fantastic course, learnt so much, very informative.
  • Very interesting with added humour to make it interesting.
  • Great supportive teaching and extremely knowledgeable.
  • Insightful and practical training. Imperative to provide the best service in Education.
  • The training was really helpful and the trainers were knowledgeable and made all staff feel comfortable.
  • <The advisor> brought this course to life and his presentation style was conducive to great engagement by all staff in the room. <They were> ably assisted by <two other advisors> who provided great insight into the <approach> through sharing anecdotes and making the practice relevant to our school. Thank you all.

To find out more information and to book in to speak to an advisor, please contact: [email protected]