The schools white paper will soon set out plans to reform the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system.
This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a truly inclusive education system which breaks down barriers to success for every child.
The case for change
The case for reform is overwhelming. Too many children do not receive the support they need, or are not in school at all.
Too many families feel worn down by a system that requires constant advocacy for what should be standard: access to a school place, respite care or even basic facilities such as clean disabled toilets.
Professionals are stretched thin, navigating complexity without sufficient clarity or empowerment. Staff make a difference in spite of the system, not because of it.
Educational outcomes and future destinations remain unacceptably low for too many children, particularly those with additional needs and complexities in their lives. This cannot continue.
Why we focus on inclusion, not only SEND
It’s been a privilege to chair the Department for Education’s expert advisory group on inclusion over the past year, bringing together diverse expertise from across the system to support the government.
Our focus on inclusion, not only SEND, is deliberate.
For too long, SEND has been treated as separate from mainstream education: a parallel system with its own language and frameworks.
The result has been fragmentation, with support becoming siloed or perceived as someone else’s responsibility, and too often revolving around labels and compliance rather than evidence, quality and outcomes.
An inclusive system starts from a different premise. It assumes every child may face barriers to learning at different points and asks how we remove barriers to attendance, participation and achievement rather than how we categorise need.
A deficit model leads to lower expectations, segregation and variable provision. Inclusion demands high expectations for all.
Over the past year, we have supported ministers in their engagement through the national conversation on SEND.
We have listened to children, parents and frontline professionals, as well as charities, campaign groups and system leaders. Through the inclusion in practice project, we have captured strong examples of inclusive practice in action.
There is clear consensus on the need for change.
From fragmentation to one system
Building a more inclusive system requires thinking beyond individual institutions towards a continuum of high-quality support in local areas.
Mainstream, specialist and alternative provision must operate as one system, with expertise shared rather than siloed.
Children and families experience the whole system and don’t see organisational boundaries or blockages. We, as professionals, need to see this too.
The white paper is not the conclusion of this debate, but the beginning of the next chapter. It will require a significant system shift, and sustained focus from the government and school system alike.
Education and inclusion are rightly emotive
There will be criticism. Education and inclusion are rightly emotive, and contested areas. Few issues matter more for social justice and the society we want to build, and the government is right to make this its focus.
Within the expert advisory group, we have committed to respectful disagreement, recognising that understanding different perspectives is necessary to progress.
Debate is essential. Much of the variation in SEND practice exists because we have not applied the same intellectual rigour to inclusion as we have to areas such as reading, curriculum or teacher development.
Inclusion can’t be in ‘too hard’ pile
The white paper represents a pivotal moment for policy and system leadership.
Policy sets direction, but change happens from the ground up. We have a collective responsibility to make this work. Another generation of children cannot be failed because reform proved too difficult.
Inclusion can no longer sit in the “too hard” pile. We now have an opportunity to change it. It is the central reform – for schools, for this government and for social policy.
This is about children; it’s about how we treat the most vulnerable and it’s about the sort of society we want to become. Now is the time to step forward together and seize this moment to create one system with high ambition for all children.
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