Higher Expectations Aren’t Enough
The government’s new SEND reforms are ambitious. Earlier intervention. Stronger mainstream inclusion. National Inclusion Standards. Clearer accountability for schools.
All of it is the right direction.
But there’s a question underneath that many are asking.
Are we building a system that works consistently for every child? Or are we just raising expectations, without fixing the thing that’s broken?
The problem isn’t knowledge
Schools have long known what good inclusion looks like: High-quality teaching. Early identification. Adaptive practice. A culture where every child belongs.
The problem isn’t that we don’t know what to do. It’s that we don’t do it consistently.
Right now, the quality of support a child with SEND receives can depend on:
- which classroom they’re in
- which teacher they have that year
- how confident that teacher feels on a Tuesday afternoon in November
That’s not so much a system as a lottery.
And the SEND reform consultation says it plainly: support arrives too late, too inconsistently, and families are forced to fight for what their children are legally entitled to.
Reform raises the bar. But bars don’t change behaviour
The new framework introduces a Universal offer, National Inclusion Standards and structured layers of support: Targeted, Targeted Plus, Specialist.
In theory, this creates something more predictable. More equitable.
But I’ve spoken to enough headteachers and SENCOs to know how this plays out in practice.
Frameworks land. Training days happen. Then Monday arrives. And it’s the same classrooms, the same pressures, the same lone SENCO holding everything together.
The risk isn’t that the reforms are wrong. The risk is that good policy meets inconsistent implementation, and the children who needed things to change most end up waiting again.
Ofsted has already shifted the goalposts
This is where it gets serious for school leaders.
Inspection is no longer looking for isolated pockets of good practice. It’s asking whether inclusion is embedded. Is it consistently improving outcomes for pupils system-wide?
Not “does your SENCO do brilliant work?” but “does every teacher in this school identify need early, adapt their practice, and follow the evidence?”
Inclusion is no longer about intent. It’s about delivery. At scale. Every day.
The leadership questions we must ask
Publishing an Inclusion Strategy is now a requirement. Evidence-based practice is expected. Accountability runs through the whole school, not just the SEND department.
But compliance isn’t the same as culture.
The leaders who will close this gap are the ones asking harder questions:
- Do our staff have the confidence to identify need early, or do they pass it up the chain?
- Is our support systematic, or does it depend on who happens to care most?
- Are we building structures that work even when our best people are off sick?
Consistency fails when practice depends on individuals rather than systems.
This is a real opportunity if we systemise good practice.
The reforms can work. They can shorten the wait for support and reduce the reliance on EHCPs as the only route to getting help.
The reforms can help schools be more inclusive, but only if implementation is consistent enough to matter. Ideas are cheap – implementation is where things get stuck.
And for implementation to consistently work, you need the right systems. In particular:
- Leaders who model excellence, lead by example, and create a psychologically safe environment for teachers to reflect on and discuss each other’s practice.
- Cultural habits that encourage teachers to notice how learners respond, and to adapt and follow up accordingly.
- Technical systems (like SENshine Embrace) that support collaborative whole-school inclusive practice, and prioritise action over admin.
Because the future of SEND won’t be shaped by what the white paper says.
It will be shaped by what happens in classrooms. Every day. For every child.
Not just the ones lucky enough to have the right teacher. But all of them.
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Sonal Desai works as a DfE-appointed SEND Adviser through Insight Innovate and is Chief Customer Officer at SENshine. She brings over 18 years of experience leading inclusion across schools, multi-academy trusts, and local authorities.