The government is launching a call for evidence to find examples of inclusive practice in schools as part of its planned reforms for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
It will aim to draw on the experiences of teachers and school leaders who have a proven track record of effective inclusion in mainstream schools for pupils with SEND, including through resource provision and SEN units.
The call for evidence was revealed today by education secretary Bridget Phillipson at the Association of School and College Leaders’ conference in Liverpool.
The initiative - called - will be formally launched tomorrow by Tom Rees, who was appointed as the chair of the government’s advisory group on inclusion last year.
Parents fighting for support
The Department for Education has said that a series of reports, including by the National Audit Office, ISOS and the Institute for Fiscal Studies, have highlighted “that outcomes for children with SEND are poor and parents have to fight for support”.
It has said that the call to evidence will be a major step towards “improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream settings for children with SEND, making sure special schools cater to children with the most complex needs and restoring parents’ trust that their child will get the right support”.
The DfE has said that Mr Rees will be working with the Confederation of School Trusts (CST) and Ambition Institute, to ensure their recommendations to the DfE on reform are “rooted in hard evidence about what works in practice”.
Inclusion in Practice will call for examples of excellent practice that schools and trusts are already implementing ahead of wider reform due to be announced by the government.
Examples will include schools and trusts that have expanded mainstream schools with resource and SEN units, provided access to mainstream lessons supported by specialist learning assistants and provided support and specialist equipment to play sports.
A 2024 Tes investigation revealed concerns that mainstream schools needed more guidance and funding to effectively run resourced provision and SEN units within their settings.
Ms Phillipson said: “Children and young people with SEND - along with disadvantaged children - have the most to gain from high and rising standards.
“And a classroom that caters to all is a strength. Children thinking in different ways is a gift. It’s time we recognised that.
She added: “I’ve been told this is too hard, that it can’t be done. Of course it’s not easy, but it is possible - there are schools and trusts doing it already and I’ve talked to parents and they tell me how important this is.”
‘Best opportunity to succeed’
Mr Rees said: “Inclusion in Practice will allow us to gather evidence to help improve experiences and outcomes for children, young people, families and providers.
“We are urging schools and stakeholders leading the way to share their approaches - by telling their stories, they will help shape a national resource that ensures every child, in every school, has the best opportunity to succeed.”
CST’s CEO Leora Cruddas said that reforming the SEND system was a top priority.
She added: “We need to create a school system in England that is built on the foundations of excellence, inclusion and equity. There is some brilliant practice in our schools, built on evidence and what works.
“Inclusion in Practice seeks to capture this practice so that we can use it to transform the SEND system and create the conditions for all our children to flourish in England’s schools.”
Submissions open tomorrow at 10.30am, with the first round concluding at the end of Tuesday 1 May.
Update:
Speaking to reporters on Saturday morning after his speech, Mr Rees said the Inclusion Expert Advisory Group is having monthly meetings and speaking regularly to the department.
Mr Rees was asked about social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) support - an area that schools are particularly struggling with, according to a recent Tes analysis.
He said there are “such a variety of precise needs” under the SEMH label, and the group is interested in looking at this area.
Asked about the group’s work on SEND in initial teacher training (ITT), he said: “Almost everyone would say there should be more training for SEND. The question is, what is that? Is that more training on specific types of need?
“Is it more training on particular programmes of support? You know, how much of that is about more specialists, and upskilling staff in schools in more specialist areas like speech and language?”
‘Pragmatic as well as ambitious’
After the Inclusion in Practice call for evidence ends, the responses will be synthesised to build and publish case studies of good practice within the system.
“Inclusion is one of those areas where sometimes debates can be ideological or idealistic, and I think we want to be, as well as very ambitious, quite pragmatic,” he said.
“We have to move the system on from where it is today to the next phase. And to do that, we need to be able to build on things that exist at the moment.”
The group will also look at the “enabling conditions” that exist in a local area to allow schools to create good practice.
In conversation with ASCL’s SEND specialist Margaret Mulholland on Saturday morning, Mr Rees said lots of people in the education, health and care plan system are acting in good faith and trying to make things work well “but the way that the incentives are designed, it drives the wrong behaviour”.
He also said the group has found Ofsted “really open to work with” on inclusion in the new inspection framework.
“We’ve been able to have conversations with Ofsted to understand more about the inclusion judgements and how that works,” he said.
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