Identification of need and inclusive provision

IPSEF is a framework that settings can use to evaluate their provision to support inclusive practice and to demonstrate their compliance against the Ofsted framework, legal requirements, and Norfolk County Council's Provision Expected at SEN Support (PEaSS). It is intended to effectively be a 'one-stop tool' for settings to evaluate themselves. Inclusion and SEND have produced an IPSEF implementation guide (PDF) [1MB] to support settings in its use.

The IPSEF web form is available online (opens new window).

An optional IPSEF report for provision (Excel doc) [415KB] has been created to provide settings with one page reports for each IPSEF section, and compare IPSEF results across a number of settings. Settings can also use the optional IPSEF action planning tool (Word doc) [210KB] to record key actions they have identified when completing the IPSEF.

The IPSEF focuses on:

• Culture and ethos
• Provision
• Independence

The benefits for education settings:

The IPSEF will inform your planning for the new financial and academic years and can be used to measure improvement progress from year to year. It will help you to make effective, efficient budgetary decisions and will reduce workload as educational settings can capture all required performance in one place.

The benefits for county council:

The IPSEF creates a methodology the council can use to understand an educational setting's inclusion and SEND context. This can be specific to an individual, or aggregated data can enable the review of multiple settings.

Educational settings should use the IPSEF alongside the Identification of needs descriptors in educational settings so we can create a reliable and high-quality standard set of data to help us:

• Better plan the deployment of our services
• Make effective and efficient budgetary decisions
• Identify gaps in our services and in settings provision
• Correctly contrast and compare areas
• More quickly process funding requests to support educational settings
• Help us measure our impact

It is recommended that education settings complete an IPSEF once a year, and that the IPSEF is an integral part of a their cycle of self-evaluation and development planning. Settings are encouraged to conduct their own external moderation to ensure consistency within a trust or cluster. The Inclusion and SEND team will co-ordinate IPSEF Peer Reviews which provide an opportunity for SEND professionals in a local area to share good practice, successes and areas of development identified through the IPSEF. For further information on IPSEF Peer Reviews, please see the IPSEF Implementation Guide.