Service IV
Provision Design
Opening or rebuilding provision for pupils with the most complex needs? Get the design right before the first pupil arrives.
For schools and trusts creating a new inclusion base or resourced provision, rebuilding one that has drifted, or opening a special school or alternative provision. I was the founding headteacher of a DfE special free school for pupils with SEMH needs and autism and took it from concept to full capacity in 24 months. The building had been designed before I arrived, so I know the work and the cost of putting it right. Feedback from that experience contributed to additions to the DfE's specification for new special schools, and I have advised other trusts on theirs. The brief turns your intentions into requirements your leaders, your architect and your funder can work from, and the launch support keeps the design intact until the provision is running.
What it covers
- Purpose, cohort and admission approach: who the provision is for, who it is not for, and how pupils enter, exit and reintegrate
- Staffing model, supervision, training and the behaviour approach, built around need and able to hold under pressure
- Timetable and movement: how the day runs and how pupils move between the provision and other lessons, where that is the model
- Zoning, arrival, sightlines and regulation spaces, including where a pupil goes to calm down and how they leave
- Physical specification: doors, acoustics, lighting, intimate care, storage, and the room schedule
- An avoid list of common and costly mistakes, from someone who had to put them right
- How you will know it is working: the measures leaders and governors see from the first term
What you will have at the end
- An educational brief: cohort profile, purpose and model, entry, exit and reintegration, staffing model, timetable, adjacencies and zoning notes, room schedule
- A specification annex for your architect and estates team: doors, fixtures, acoustics, lighting, intimate care
- The avoid list
- A short note for governors or trustees: what is being built, for whom, and how they will know it is working
- With launch support: the policies, templates and training plan the provision opens with, and a first half term check
Scope and limits
Aligned to the DfE inclusion bases guidance (June 2026), Building Bulletin 104 area guidance and the DfE specification for special free schools, in the versions in force when the work takes place, for your architect and specialists to verify. Educational advice only: not architectural, structural, fire or occupational therapy advice, and never advice on which pupils should be placed where.
How it runs
Three ways in.
Stage 1, the design brief. Three days: one with your leaders and, where there is one, your architect; two writing. Most useful at RIBA Stages 1 and 2, before the layout is fixed, because changes are cheap on paper and expensive in concrete. Equally useful for a base in an existing building, where the question is what the space has to do and how pupils move through it.
Stage 2, launch support. Days against a one page scope with a cap, usually across two terms, invoiced in stages: policy and support plan templates, the staffing and training plan, parent information, pre opening checks against the brief, and a visit in the first half term to see whether the design survived contact with pupils. £700 a day, £650 a day from the eleventh day of one contract.
Remote plan review. One day: marked up drawings and a short note within five working days, for a trust that already has a design and wants it checked against the cohort. It covers one set of drawings and one round of comments; larger schemes are quoted as two days up front.
Why me
Why this is work I can do.
I was the founding headteacher of a special school, but the building had already been designed when I arrived. I spent three years adapting it to the pupils, including major building work, and I learned what that costs. I then gave feedback to the Department for Education that contributed to additions to its specification for new special schools. The cohort, the admissions approach, the behaviour team, the policy, the support plans and the staff training were all built from nothing. Before that I led an all through specialist school and a specialist college with residential provision, and I have written for Tes on setting up inclusion bases. I know what a base or a school needs to stay part of the system around it, and what makes it drift.
Questions
Questions schools ask.
When should we involve you?
As early as possible, ideally at RIBA Stages 1 and 2, before the layout is fixed. If the building already exists, before you decide which rooms the provision gets.
Do you replace our architect or occupational therapist?
No. The brief sets out what the provision needs educationally. Your architect, engineers and, where needed, an occupational therapist check it and design to it.
We are opening a base with Inclusive Mainstream Fund money. Is this what the fund is for?
The fund names resources, training and specialist expertise to aid preparation for and delivery of inclusion bases, and it must be new activity spent by March 2028. A design brief is preparation. Your school decides the funding line.
We are a trust opening a new special school. How does this fit with the DfE process?
The design brief is written to sit alongside the DfE's own specification and your project team's work, not to replace them. It is the educational voice in the room, from someone who has been the headteacher on the receiving end of the building.
Can you review plans remotely?
Yes. A remote plan review starts at one day and covers one set of drawings and one round of comments. It returns marked up drawings and a short note within five working days. Larger schemes are quoted as two days up front.
Is travel included?
Travel within the North East is included in the fee. Further afield, travel and any overnight stay are quoted as a fixed amount in the proposal, so you know the full cost before you agree.
Let's talk
Twenty minutes is usually enough to know whether this would help.
If it would not, I will say so, and point you to free support instead.
Book a 20 minute call (opens booking page in a new tab)