New post-16 SEND inclusion cash revealed

Colleges and training providers will receive a share of £73 million next month from the first year of the government’s inclusive mainstream fund.

Allocations for 303 colleges, training providers and universities for the promised funding were published today alongside best practice guidance on better meeting the needs of SEND students in mainstream settings.

It comes as part of the government’s multi-billion pound SEND reform plans. The Department for Education committed £500 million per financial year for an inclusive mainstream fund covering early years, schools and 16-19 across the next three years.

DfE today published the full breakdown of 16 to 19 grant allocations for the 2026-27 financial year, calculated from disadvantaged learner numbers in the 2025-26 academic year.

Adding in schools, the fund will pump £83 million into 16-19 education this year. Grants range from £3,000 to £1.38 million.

Of that, 78 per cent – £64.6 million – will go to further education colleges. Land-based colleges and sixth form colleges will receive £1.9 million and £1.7 million respectively. Just over £4 million will go to independent training providers.

Large FE college groups NCG, Activate Learning and New City College will receive just over £1.3 million each.

The inclusive mainstream fund (IMF) is intended to improve adaptive teaching, create accessible learning environments and provide targeted interventions for learners with extra needs.

Individual provider allocations were calculated using DfE’s methodology for 16 to 19 disadvantage block 2 (DB2) funding rates, which top-up cash for students with low prior attainment.

IMF funding is weighted according to the intensity of the study programme, with T Level students attracting the highest rate of £160 per student. Students on large programmes will be paid £118 per learner, and those on smaller courses have a per-learner rate of £72.

Area cost adjustments will also be applied to each institution’s allocation.

Recipient institutions will be required to set out how they use the funding in their annual accountability statement. They also must explain how they respond to SEND and local skills needs. Using college performance data and financial health rating, DfE can subsequently consider intervention if outcomes are “weak”.

Inclusion expectations

DfE also announced today a new national panel of experts to develop ‘national inclusion standards’, intended to give colleges “clearer expectations” on what good support is expected of them.

The panel, co-chaired by academy trust boss Tom Rees and NHS England’s head of clinical innovation research Anne Gordon, features nine experts, including Ben Bastin, chair of Natspec and head of Treloar College.

Bastin said: “I am excited to join the panel at such a pivotal time for SEND reform. I look forward to bringing both my personal and professional experience of specialist provision and the transition to adulthood to ensure these changes support children and young people in a more inclusive 0 to 25 system.”

The inclusion allocations were published alongside the first breakdown of local authority funding for the government’s flagship external support ‘experts at hand’ service.

The white paper committed £1.8 billion over three years to experts at hand and £200 million in transformation funding.

Councils will split £429 million this financial year, and new guidance today said DfE expects to ramp up funding in 2027-28 to £750 million and £850 million in 2028-29.

See the full inclusive mainstream fund allocations table below: