Cordis Bright is excited to be working together with CFE Research and the University of Exeter to deliver an evaluation of the Department for Education and NHS England’s Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools (PINS) programme. This page provides an overview of PINs and the approach we are taking to the evaluation, and is a home for outputs relating to the PINS evaluation.

About PINS

The PINS programme is being delivered by DfE and NHSE between November 2023 and March 2025, costing £13m.

PINS brings together education and health workforces to meet the needs of neurodiverse pupils more effectively in mainstream settings. Delivered through joint working between education settings, local authorities and integrated care boards (ICBs), the programme will deploy specialist support in response to local need to improve teacher understanding of neurodiversity and application of whole-school approaches. This builds on proposals within the SEND and AP Improvement Plan which aims to build capacity and expertise in mainstream settings.

The programme is aiming to provide this specialist support within 40 primary schools in each integrated care board area, representing 10% of schools across England.

About the PINS evaluation

The evaluation has three key objectives: 

1. Understand how PINS was implemented and identify any barriers to delivery.
2. Determine, if and to what extent PINS improved schools’ ability to support neurodiverse pupils and if this improved pupil outcomes.
3. Assess the acceptability, suitability and benefit of PINS being rolled out more widely, including unintended consequences.

To achieve this, together with our partners we will deliver a mixed methods approach combining:

• Qualitative data from consultation with the ICBs, specialist support teams, schools, children and parents.
• Quantitative data collected via surveys and monitoring information.

The evaluation will run from March 2024 to August 2025.

For more information, please contact Caitlin Hogan-Lloyd.