The government’s ambition for a more inclusive education system is well-intentioned. As Bridget Phillipson and her new ministerial team develop their plans for reform, I hope they will see trusts as key allies in delivering on it.
Every child, regardless of background, need or previous experience of school should be able to access the education they need to thrive and achieve.
But inclusion is not a single pathway or a one-size-fits-all approach. It looks different for every child and as we know from the work we do in our own schools, the system must be flexible enough to meet individual needs.
With the right mix of schools, effective partnerships and high-quality outreach, multi-academy trusts are uniquely placed to make a real difference.
Too often, inclusion is interpreted as ‘every child being able to do everything’. This is neither realistic nor desirable. Our experience shows that specialist schools are vital for some children and will always be the right environment for them.
However, the expertise in those settings should not sit in silos. A genuinely inclusive system is one in which mainstream schools and special schools work closely together, each learning from the other.
Some trusts, like ours, operate a ‘mixed economy’ model, bringing together mainstream, alternative provision and specialist schools under one umbrella. The value here is immense. Knowledge and expertise flow across the different settings, improving provision for all pupils, at all levels.
For example, colleagues in mainstream schools can access specialist advice from SEND staff to help them better support children with additional needs in their classrooms. Meanwhile, mainstream curriculum specialists can help enrich teaching and learning in special schools. It genuinely is a two-way street.
The government should be championing this model
Being a specialist provision, however, does not automatically mean a school is ‘inclusive’. Inclusion is about personalised support; it means knowing each child and their family well, understanding the context and background around each child, and then building networks of appropriate care around them.
As schools have been hit by budget cuts over the past few years, this level of pastoral care has sadly been eroded in many mainstream settings. Too many schools have had to lose staff who were able to get to know pupils and their families individually. This has been detrimental to many children.
However, within a mixed economy trust, additional pastoral and SEND expertise can be more readily available for mainstream settings, which can help address this gap.
Importantly, this work is not only about the schools within a trust. Inclusion requires a whole-system approach, reaching into local communities, working with other schools and local authorities.
All our schools collaborate with neighbouring schools, both specialist and mainstream. Our outreach team is also supporting wider system development by working with staff and pupils in mainstream schools to help reduce exclusions, which is ultimately building inclusive capacity in schools we do not run.
It is also important to focus on what happens to pupils once they reach the end of Year 11 or Year 13/14, to ensure that they can continue to access inclusive provision. In our case, being part of a wider education group which includes a multi-campus further education college supports this.
Where schools and colleges work together to identify and address individual needs, students will transition more effectively and have a far greater chance of long-term success.
The government should be championing this model of trusts working as system leaders. It avoids two unhelpful binaries: ‘academies versus maintained’ and ‘mainstream versus special’, instead creating a continuum of provision in which children can get the right support at the right time.
For some, inclusion means thriving in a mainstream classroom with the right adjustments; for others, it means flourishing in a specialist environment. What matters is that the system recognises and supports these differences rather than expecting every child to go in the same direction.
Trusts have the tools to make this happen: pooling expertise across schools, embedding inclusive governance models and forging reciprocal relationships between mainstream and special provision.
This can ensure that more children get the educational experience they deserve, which is precisely this government’s aim.
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