For years, schools across the country have been grappling with a growing set of challenges around special educational needs and disabilities (SEND): rising levels of need, increasing complexity, stretched specialist services and a system struggling to keep pace with what’s best for children.

In classrooms up and down the country, colleagues work tirelessly to do right by every child, but the scale of need means effort alone will never be enough.

If we are to meet the needs of all learners - especially those with SEND - then now must be the moment for action: to invest in people, and to reimagine what truly inclusive practice looks like at national scale.

SEND training for all

That’s why we warmly welcome the forthcoming national investment in professional development for the education workforce.

It recognises something we hold dear at REAch2: when teachers and support staff are equipped with the right knowledge, have belief in their own expertise, work closely with parents and have the tools to do the work, then every child can thrive.

Inclusion is not an add-on or an afterthought; it is the heartbeat of great teaching. The real question has never been should we do this, but how we do it well and how we do it for everyone.

Trust-wide inclusion

For us, the “how” has been our trust-wide approach to SEND - an approach that tackles the challenge at every level, from whole-school culture to high-quality classroom practice.

Central to this has been our large-scale investment in adaptive teaching CPD. We have focused on sustained, evidence-informed development that helps colleagues to plan, teach and assess in ways that are ambitious, inclusive and accessible.

This has been about ensuring that every learner can access the same intended learning, through responsive lesson design, in-the-moment adjustments, carefully judged pre-teaching and the thoughtful deployment of staff and resources.

CPD on SEND

At its heart is a belief we share deeply: that great teaching is great teaching for every child, and that when we equip our staff with the expertise to meet a wide range of needs, the impact is transformational and truly inclusive.

A crucial part of this work has been how we engage staff at all levels of experience. Anyone in the sector knows that “winning hearts and minds” among seasoned professionals is where we pivot from a demand or a process into a sense of a “shared mission”.

Our approach starts with the belief that experience is an asset, not a barrier. Through our “Great Schools” strategy, we have prioritised building a genuine learning community: one where expertise across the trust is shared, where colleagues learn from each other and where we look outward as well as inward. Professional development is not something done to staff, but something co-created with them - an approach that strengthens trust, agency and shared purpose.

Enhanced provisions

The expertise developed within our enhanced provisions - the high expectations, precise assessment, adapted curricula, thoughtful scaffolding and strong partnerships with families - radiates through the wider schools.

The result is a culture where pupils with additional needs are supported, stretched and belong - where all children benefit from teaching that is both rigorous and responsive. When the culture is right and the practice is strong, outcomes follow. Recruiting and retaining Sendcos, for example, has been a challenge in the past, but we have found a material and positive change here with turnover down.

This is why national investment in workforce development matters so profoundly. If we truly want to shift the dial on SEND, we must invest in the people who make inclusion happen: teachers, leaders, teaching assistants, early years practitioners and every adult who shapes a child’s experience of school.

We need meaningful, sustained CPD - and the time to embed it - so that strategies become habits and habits become culture. When that happens, inclusion is no longer something we strive for; it becomes something we live.

This is the moment to be bold. Investing in our workforce and placing inclusion at the centre of school improvement is how we move from aspiration to reality - and in so doing, build an education system where every child is equipped, empowered and expected to flourish.

Cathie Paine is CEO of REAch2, the largest primary-only multi-academy trust in England

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