This course will help trust leaders prepare for significant changes to the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system, which the government is expected to announce in Autumn 2025.
We anticipate that the scale of the reforms will require mainstream schools and trusts to cater for a wider and more complex range of pupils’ needs. This course aims to equip leaders with the knowledge, evidence and tools to do this effectively.
It offers practical insights in three areas: Securing meaningful inclusion through partnership working, building your trust’s universal offer for pupils, and delivering targeted and specialist support in mainstream settings.
Who is it for?
This programme is designed for:
- Directors of Education and Improvement
- Directors of Inclusion
- CEOs of school trusts
What you’ll gain
This course will give you:
- An understanding of the upcoming reforms to the SEND system and implications for workforce, families, professional knowledge and delivering enhanced provision.
- Insight into how partnership working can be enriched and strengthened across the local community to secure meaningful inclusion for pupils.
- Access to practical strategies to improve pupil engagement and belonging and build professional knowledge to meet a diverse range of pupil needs.
- Key principles for setting up and overseeing enhanced provision and targeted interventions which are inclusive and effective.
- Examples of how support can be responsive and fluid in meeting pupils’ needs from inclusive universal, targeted and specialist provision.
You will leave with:
- Insights on enhanced provision from Ambition’s work with trust leaders
- Practical strategies to strengthen pupil belonging
- Research on which pupil interventions are effective from Ambition’s recent study
- Tools and artefacts shared by guest speakers
Course overview
Seminar 1: Partnership working to secure meaningful inclusion
The first session will explore the key features of the SEND reforms outlined in the schools white paper and will introduce partnership working as key to implementing these reforms effectively, including with parents, local authorities, specialist settings and other schools, especially during merger processes.
Seminar 2: Building up your universal offer for pupils
The second session will explore the implications of the reforms for two key areas of practice, both related to strengthening the inclusive universal offer for all pupils - building pupil belonging and deepening professional knowledge of SEND.
Seminar 3: Delivering targeted and specialist support in mainstream
The third session will focus on two areas of provision related to providing targeted and specialist support in mainstream settings - enhanced provision and responsive interventions.
Course leaders
03:30 pm
11 Feb 2026 02:00 pm to
03:30 pm
25 Feb 2026 02:00 pm to
03:30 pm
- CST members £270+VAT
- Non-members £330+VAT
