Reflections from our SEND & Inclusion roundtable: SEND Strategy Solutions at Scale – from Insight to Implementation.
We recently convened trust leaders in SEND and Inclusion for our SEG Insights SEND Strategy Solutions at Scale roundtable. Our aim was to explore what effective, scalable SEND strategy looks like across a trust, and together we identified seven guiding principles to shape decision-making around SEND strategy.
We shared these in our follow-up webinar, which you can watch here.
A clear message emerged from the day: great leadership matters and, in line with the new Ofsted framework, transformational leadership matters most. With this in mind, we’ve drawn together key reflections on transformational leadership and what it takes to cultivate leaders who can drive meaningful change.
Building leadership at all levels
One of the key takeaways was the importance of distributed leadership and recognition that transformational leadership isn’t – and shouldn’t be – limited to trust leaders. It’s about building confidence and capability across all roles.
Senior leaders, middle leaders, SENCOs, pastoral leads, teachers and teaching assistants need to feel empowered to make decisions, support colleagues and drive SEND improvements.
The group felt strongly that every leader should be a leader of SEND and have a core level of knowledge about how to support vulnerable pupils. This shift should be communicated from the top, embedded in the trust’s culture and reinforced through workforce development.
When leaders at every level understand their role in delivering SEND strategy, transformational leadership becomes truly distributed across the trust rather than remaining at the top.
Scaling the graduated approach
Traditionally, the Assess–Plan–Do–Review cycle, or the graduated approach, was something an individual SENCO or teacher would apply to an individual child.
But the new Ofsted framework states that, “leaders must now take a graduated approach at a strategic level.”
This means:
- Assessing the needs of cohorts, as well as individual pupils
- Giving teachers training and autonomy to observe, assess and adjust their approaches
- Using the cycle to shape school-wide decision-making and reviewing whether new policies and practices are actually working at school and trust level
When leaders embrace the graduated approach themselves, it becomes a strategic mindset that cascades across trusts and schools.
Embedding this mindset creates leaders who think beyond individual pupils – leaders who shape systems that consistently drive better outcomes across the whole school or trust.
Upskilling leaders: pathways, partnerships and practical support
Another strong theme that came through was training and workforce development. Leaders were candid about the CPD opportunities they wished had been available earlier in their careers.
We heard inspiring examples of how trusts are closing these knowledge gaps. Timothy James, Director of SEND for White Horse Federation, encourages leaders to take the NPQ SENCO, not to become SENCOs themselves, but to deepen their understanding of inclusion and build connections to SENCO networks.
We also noted that most SENCOs aren’t line managed by Directors of Inclusion. This makes it vital to support leaders who do line-manage SENDCos, helping them understand the role and giving them the tools to challenge, support and develop staff effectively.
Colleagues from Supporting Education Group’s Best Practice Network shared their work with The Gallery Trust to create the SEND Initial Teacher Training pathway. This partnership shows how collaboration with training providers and policy makers can strengthen the sector – and, in turn, benefit teachers, leaders and vulnerable pupils.
Ultimately, these pathways and partnerships show that developing transformational leaders is not just about formal qualifications – it’s about continuous learning, practical support and connecting people across the system.
Working in partnership
One of the seven key guiding principles we identified is ensuring that SEND strategy reflects and engages all key stakeholders – parents, governors, pupils, local authorities, health professionals and more. Being a transformational leader means inviting the perspectives of others, giving people the agency to contribute and helping everyone feel like they belong from the very start of the journey.
When leadership development, scalable strategic thinking, practical training and collaboration come together, we start to see what transformational leadership in SEND truly looks like and, most importantly, the difference it makes for children and young people.
We went into more detail and shared the full set of guiding principles in our follow-up webinar, which you can watch here.
This is the start of a seven-part blog series on transformational leadership. Keep an eye out for future posts here.