The Balanced System Pathway
What is the Balanced System® and the Balanced System Pathway?
The Balanced System® is the overall strategic framework for organising services across 5 core strands (family support, environment, workforce, identification and intervention) and 3 delivery levels (universal, targeted and specialist).
All of the information, resources and activities are organised into three levels.
Universal level is for all children and families and has general information and resources about speech, language and communication that will be of interest to all parents, carers and young people, including those supporting children and young people with speech, language and communication needs.
Targeted level information and resources are more directly useful for children and young people and their families where there is a likely worry about speech, language and communication or a need has been identified already. For the majority of children and young people and their families, this level will provide enough support.
Specialist level information and resources are either to support more complicated speech, language and communication needs or to provide more specialist information and help. Some children and young people and their families will need specialist level support as well as targeted and universal levels for them to make the progress they wish to make with speech, language and communication. Specialist level may not be needed all of the time and may be helpful at certain points on a child or young person's journey.
The Balanced System Pathway is an interactive, practical, digital tool to help parents, carers and professionals navigate the Balanced System® Framework to find specific local and national resources to help support children's speech, language and communication development.
Following the successful relaunch of the Balanced System Pathway in Nottingham City in October 2026, we are pleased to be able to share with you:
- The Slide Deck from this Relaunch Event
- A PowerPoint Presentation ‘Team Cascade Deck’ to help introduce the Balanced System Pathway to your teams - in this resource you will find information to direct you to, and through, the Pathway.
We hope you find these resources useful and that you feel confident in using the Pathway in every day practice, making the most of all it has to offer. Do have a try, we promise you can't break it!
If you have any questions or need any further information, please don’t hesitate to contact Max Dahle, Childcare Workforce Development Manager, at max.dahle@nottinghamcity.gov.uk, or your Early Years Support Worker if you are based in a PVI Setting.
