What is the DBV Programme?

Suffolk County Council have been awarded a Department for Education grant to run a school-based programme from January 2024 to December 2025.​

The programme aligns with the Graduated Response and early intervention work already happening across Suffolk. ​It will support the roll-out of evidence-based interventions for children who are not yet at Age Related Expectations (ARE) for Maths and/or Literacy, emotional wellbeing or language development. ​Initially the programme will work with mainstream primary schools. ​The programme will move to secondary schools and alternative provision schools in 2025. ​

The new DBV Team comprises of Specialist Teachers and Assistant Psychologists.​ If you are a school who would like to register interest to be considered for our next Cohort, please email [email protected]. Each school will have their own DBV Specialist assigned to support them throughout the Programme.​ Schools in our September 2024 cohort will have access to one academic DBV intervention, with the possibility of one additional intervention. Each cohort will deliver an intervention over 12 weeks.  There will be time commitments of approximately a month either side from the school:

• Cohort 1 March – July 2024
• Cohort 2 September – December 2024
• Cohort 3 January – March 2025
• Cohort 4 March – July 2025
• Cohort 5 September – December 2025

Each cohort will have between 15 and 25 schools involved.

Schools must commit to the timeframes of the programme.

What interventions are available to schools?

We have five FREE evidence-based academic interventions, covering reading fluency, reading comprehension, writing, early maths skills, and fluency of key skills. We also provide part-funding and implementation support for a Speech and Language package called Speech and Language Link. We also provide part-funding and implementation support for an Emotional Wellbeing package. The plans are imminent to communicate this package to schools.

What is provided for academic evidence-based interventions?

• Free staff training on the intervention, led by the DBV Specialist. 
• Free resources and printed materials to run the intervention.  
• Free assessments. Your DBV Specialists will baseline assess pupils before the intervention and then reassess after a 12-week period. 
• Free ongoing telephone/email support from your DBV Specialist. 
• Free in-person visits from your DBV Specialist to support school staff. 
• Free weekly drop-in telephone session with a member of the DBV team.
• Free data analysis to show the impact intervention(s) have had on the pupils involved. 
• Schools can keep all the resources to support other pupils to make progress, and are then able to train their own staff (except for the Essex Educational Psychology Service (EPS) Maths intervention which must only be delivered by those who have attended the one-day training).

Reason for the approach and the evidence base

• In 2023, Suffolk County Council’s Children and Young People Service asked Headteachers and SENCOs about the types of evidence-based interventions needed most by Suffolk schools through events such as SENCO Network Forums. 
• Evidence from scientific research studies.   
• Proven evidence of their effectiveness in a nearby Local Authority. 
• Cost-effective. 
• Sustainable for schools to manage themselves.  
• Links to Hattie’s Visible Learning (2023). 
• Underpinned by Instructional Psychology Principles. 
• Raising Achievement for Suffolk – Cohort 1 (March – July 2024) Update
• Proven to work effectively in Suffolk schools. See our results from March-July 24 Cohort and to hear what staff, pupils and families think.