Making mainstream inclusion work, for every child.
Since 2001, Inclusive Solutions has helped schools, families, and services turn inclusion into everyday practice. We offer training, consultancy, and facilitation using proven approaches like PATH, MAP, Circle of Adults and Circle of Friends.
Prefer to learn at your own pace? Get every online course for £25 a month including VAT. See the subscription.
Call us
0115 9556045
Email us
colin@inclusive-solutions.com
What are you looking for?
Support an individual?
Person-Centred Planning | PATH | MAPS
Inclusion Facilitation | Mentoring | Problem Solving
Training for Yourself?
Mentoring | Person-Centred Planning | PATH | MAPS | Online Learning | Books
Develop your team?
Training | Workshops | Mentoring | Online Learning | PATH | MAPS
Transform your organisation?
Inclusion | Leadership | School Improvement | Facilitation | PATH | MAPS
Build stronger relationships and communities?
Circles of Friends | Circles of Adults | Community Building
Restorative Justice Training | PATH | MAPS
Still have questions? Fill out our contact form and we can help you find the perfect learning for you or your team.
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Inclusive Solutions is for anyone working to create more inclusive schools, organisations and communities.
We work with schools, teachers, SENCOs, educational psychologists, local authorities, leadership teams, families, multi-agency teams, Local, national and international organisations who want to develop more inclusive ways of working.Our work supports children, young people and adults, particularly where people may be experiencing SEND, disability, autism, mental health challenges, emotional needs or challenging behaviour.
Whether you are looking to support one individual, develop a team or create wider organisational change, we can help you find practical, person-centred ways forward.
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We help people move from feeling stuck to finding practical, inclusive ways forward.
You might come to us because you want to:
Develop a more inclusive school or organisation
Better support a child or young person with additional needs
Understand and respond to challenging behaviour
Build stronger relationships and communities
Improve inclusion for disabled and neurodivergent people
Develop a shared vision across your team
Make planning and review meetings more meaningful
Support transitions and future planning
Strengthen your team's confidence and inclusive practice
Create positive change that lasts beyond a single training day
Our approach combines practical tools, applied psychology, person-centred thinking and relationship-based practice to help people make meaningful changes in the real world.
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We offer practical training, professional learning, facilitation and consultancy to help build sustainable inclusion.
Our work includes:
Self-paced online courses
Workshops and professional development
Person-Centred Planning
PATH and MAPS
Circles of Friends
Circles of Adults
Inclusion Facilitation
Mentoring
Leadership for Inclusion
School improvement planning
Family and team planning
Books, resources and teaching materials
We can work with individual professionals, or with whole schools, teams, MATs and organisations looking to build inclusion into the way they work.
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For us, inclusion is not simply a set of techniques. It is a way of thinking, working and building relationships.
Our approach is grounded in the belief that "ALL MEANS ALL". We believe inclusion is non-negotiable and that meaningful change comes through relationships, shared responsibility and collective action.
Our training is designed to go beyond giving people another set of strategies to try. We want people to leave with practical changes they can make immediately, while also thinking about the longer-term changes needed to create genuinely inclusive schools, organisations and communities.
We believe that inclusion is everyone's responsibility, that strong teams are essential, and that "Together We're Better."
Our Featured Courses
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Circle of Adults
Circle of Adults is a structured, reflective problem-solving process designed to support individuals with complex emotional or behavioural needs. Facilitated by Inclusive Solutions, it brings together professionals to explore challenges, share insights, and build empathy. The approach strengthens team understanding and generates inclusive, effective strategies for meaningful support.
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Creating Circles of Friends
Circle of Friends is an inclusive strategy that builds peer support around a child experiencing social, emotional, or behavioral challenges. A small group of classmates meet regularly to offer friendship and practical help, encouraging empathy and inclusion while empowering the focus child to develop confidence, relationships, and a sense of belonging.
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Person Centered Planning
Person-Centred Planning is an inclusive, strengths-based approach that supports individuals - especially those with disabilities - in shaping their own future. It focuses on a person’s goals, values, and support networks, using tools like PATH and MAPs to create empowering, meaningful plans rooted in community, connection, and self-determination.
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Keys to Inclusion
The Keys to Inclusion is a self-paced training that explores eight essential principles for creating inclusive environments. Through videos and reflective exercises, participants - educators, support staff, and parents - gain practical strategies and values-based insights to support all learners and drive meaningful, lasting change in schools and communities.
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PATH
PATH (Planning Alternative Tomorrows with Hope) is a dynamic, person-centred planning tool that helps individuals create a clear, hopeful vision for the future. Using graphic facilitation and group support, PATH turns dreams into achievable goals through structured steps, empowering inclusive, strength-based action for those with additional needs.
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MAPS
MAPs (Making Action Plans) is a creative, person-centred planning tool used to support individuals - particularly young people with additional needs - to envision a positive future. Rooted in storytelling and graphic facilitation, MAPs helps groups listen deeply, reflect on strengths, and develop practical steps toward meaningful, inclusive life goals.
Start with one of our books
Creating Circles of Friends By Colin Newton and Derek Wilson – Inclusive Solutions This is a revised version of the original text by the authors: ‘Circles of Friends’. The book is a must for anyone interested in building friendships and relationships around those vulnerable or challenging through reason of disability or emotional need. Building respectful teams of support around an individual, tapping into that child’s peer group is an extremely powerful way of promoting change and insights for all involved. Circle of friends, is ultimately a tool for inclusion and is based on solid values as well as practical processes. The book describes both the values and the practical application of this approach to human change. What is more the approach works!
Circles of Adults offers the practitioner a 10 step process for facilitating team problem solving around issues of challenging behaviour and emotional needs. Problems are addressed further upstream than conventional approaches to problem solving. Change is targeted at the source of our thoughts and feelings around a particular young person or difficult issue. Features full graphics and full colour throughout with clear easy-to-follow guidelines for facilitating the process.
This is a practical book about how to implement Restorative interventions and approaches in schools. The book gives guiding ideas, principle, theory and values as well as direct scripts for those involved in direct contact with pupils, staff and parents. Restorative SOlutions are about inclusion, transforming relationships and radical ways of impacting upon conflict and rule breaking behaviour. All schools in the UK and Support Service staff will want a copy. Parents will also find it an extremely valuable resource for bringing up their own children peacefully. Preface by Sir Charles Pollard (ex Chief Superintendent, Thames Valley Police) “Bad behaviour in our schools – often leading to school exclusions, speeding the pupils involved to the social scrapheap – has become a blight on our education system. Solutions are hard to come by. Most come in the form of yet more punitive discipline, which merely heightens the problem. What is needed in schools is fresh thinking, new approaches that work – and Restorative Practices are precisely that. Restorative Practices break the cycle by tackling the root causes of misbehaviour, rather than just massaging the symptoms. Many badly behaved pupils, faced directly and personally with the harm they have done to others, not only see the error of their ways but are often even transformed into positive role models. And they don’t need to be excluded. This book is an invaluable tool for all who want to learn about Restorative Solutions. It describes how, when and where they can be used, not just to reduce exclusions but – even more importantly – to improve the whole behavioural culture of the school and improve attainment. All who work in schools should read it and act on it.”
This is a book about inclusion – a much used and misunderstood word. Inclusion has been a commonplace jargon word in the world of education and beyond over the last decade but what on earth does it mean? We have spent much of our professional and personal lives as educators, educational psychologists, parents and co founders of Inclusive Solutions trying to figure this out and to work out what it will take to make inclusion a reality. We think the word inclusion has many meanings each which lead to action – all of them important – and in this book we call these meanings: The Keys. We will take a close look at 8 Keys to inclusion and the actions needed if these keys are to open up fresh possibilities and lead us into new places in our work.
What People Are Saying
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"What really stuck with me was “welcome is more than just hello”, so now I talk to schools about the environment they can create and how we can support that too. I even apply it to how we start new colleagues at work to make them feel welcome."
Stephanie Baiardo
Principal SEND Local Authority Leader. -
"Colin was an extraordinary guest on the Agents of Hope podcast. His engaging style, insight and use of visuals was brilliant. I have to say that he has made me think differently about inclusion and has profoundly impacted my career. Thank you Colin!"
Dr Tim Cox
Educational Psychologist, Academic Lecturer & Host of Agents of Hope Podcast. -
"The training was really thorough and can be immediately actioned back in school. It showed how powerful the process can be as a problem-solving tool by collaborating and focusing on the child."
Robin Edwards
Teacher and Acting SENCO -
"Energetic, creative, imaginative, innovative, rigorous, high level of personal integrity, and guaranteed to create a sense of fun in all of his work: I could say more but I think you get the picture. I have known Colin for over 20 years and without doubt his passion for his work is the quality I aspire to. He creates a positive spirit that infects everyone within reaching distance. In summary, he is a leader in the field of inclusion, and a vital guide in challenging times."
Frank Kitson
Ex Chair of Governors/Advisor, Citizens Advice. -
"Colin had an unswerving commitment to Inclusion for decades. His focus is very much on keeping the child at the centre of everything, and working collaboratively to make for a better future. I have gained such a lot working with Colin, both now as principal EP in local authorities and now as a freelance Educational Psychologist. Colin has provided support, guidance and training. His books are in my go-to pile and I come back to his frameworks time and time again when I need to navigate a kind and purposeful way through tricky situations."
Deborah Page
Director of Step Forward Psychology. -
"This training was insightful and encouraging, the space felt safe and welcoming from start to finish. The training gets people involved without feeling forced or pushy and doesn’t feel like a “tick box”. I feel very proud to be a part of the Psychology & Therapeutic Services team, and spending time with like minded- people who make a difference to children and young people is a privilege."
Isla Baker
Business Support Coordinator for PT&S.