Inclusion Pathway (includes Section 19)

Shropshire's Inclusion Pathway

The aim of everybody involved in supporting the education of Shropshire’s children and young people is for them to be positively engaged, feel they belong and be included in suitable education.

This means that a pathway for inclusion is needed to enable the right support at the right place at the right time, especially when significant challenges arise. It is at these times that partnership working with early intervention is essential to help children and young people achieve their full potential, aspirations and goals. This is in line with the Shropshire Plan and the new SEND and AP strategy https://next.shropshire.gov.uk/the-send-local-offer/strategy-policy-and-guidance/send-strategy/ which aims to secure excellent outcomes for children and young people and for Shropshire people to be living their best life.

Shropshire Council has an Inclusion Pathway which includes:

• Integration Consultation Panels (ICPs) as a pathway for accessing early intervention with multi-agency advice from integrated and local practitioner teams. This is where a multi-agency discussion and joint action planning is the most relevant approach for pupils where there are barriers for inclusion and / or attendance, including for Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA)
• A weekly pathway meeting with TMBSS (PRU) as a route for accessing support for those pupils where a primary, Section 19 or medical place is being requested.

 

Note: where pupils have an EHCP or are in the ECHNA process the SEND pathway must be used. However, where there are relevant circumstances, a pupil with an EHCP or in the ECHNA process can be considered for discussion at the weekly Pathway meeting or the Integrated Consultation Pane (ICP)

 

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Inclusion Pathway Meeting 

(Primary shared placements and Section 19/Medical)

The aim of the Pathway meeting is the right support at the right time in the right place. The meeting held weekly in term time and is led by the Lead Education Officer for Inclusion.

Membership includes representatives from the EHCP Team, TMBSS and EAS. It is the process by which school's access the pathway for one of the following:

• Primary shared placement at TMBSS
• A medical place at TMBSS or Section 19 support

TMBSS is the service that the local authority commissions to provide support and intervention for pupils where is a need for a short period of intervention for either medical reasons, earlier intervention to support inclusion or sixth day provision following an exclusion.

 

Specialist Outreach - interim arrangement

As part of the wider Children's Services Transformation programme, we are working towards a single point of request for all non-statutory inclusion support. 

From September 2026 until further notice, requests for Specialist Outreach and Early Years SEND Support Officers for children in Reception can be accessed using the Inclusion Pathway Referral Form. More details regarding Specialist Outreach can be found HERE.

 

The Referral form can be found here:  Inclusion Pathway Referral | Shropshire Learning Gateway

 

In the pupil’s best interests, the Referral form must be fully completed in order for the school’s request to be considered at the Pathway meeting. The triage process will include considering whether there is enough quality information included in the referral, if not then a school’s referral might be delayed until the following week while more information is sought i.e. a re-submission would be needed.

 

Section 19 or Medical Referrals

If this is a Section 19 or Medical referral, all supporting evidence must be sent to eas@shropshire.gov.uk.

Please ensure the subject line of the email is: Inclusion Pathway Referral Evidence (Initials of Child & DOB)

 

The process is as follows:

          

  If a parent/carer wishes to discuss a request for Section 19 please contact the named Section 19 Officer at eas@shropshire.gov.uk

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If a request for TMBSS shared placement or Section 19/Medical placement is not granted, you may be offered Specialist Outreach or Outshine to support you with meeting the child or young person's needs. If this is the case, the relevant team will contact you to make the offer and obtain consent before proceeding.  

Links to further resources

• Shropshire Inclusion Pathway 2026