How do we improve SEND provision across a multi-academy trust?

The first move: own SEND at trust level

Start by making SEND a trust-wide strategy owned at board level, not a school-by-school fix: appoint a central SEND/inclusion lead, share practice between SENCOs, and standardise the graduated approach across schools. The most common reason a trust's SEND outcomes stay uneven is that each school is left to solve the same problems alone. Lifting the whole estate starts with a single decision at the centre, not a longer task list for already-stretched SENCOs.

Why this is the board's job, not just the SENCO's

Under the academy trust governance framework, the trust board holds strategic and statutory responsibility for SEND across all its schools. The Department for Education's governance guidance expects a named link trustee or a sub-committee with specific oversight of SEN and disability. So “improving SEND provision” begins as a board strategy decision with a clear executive owner, which is the qualifier most school-improvement advice misses.

Each academy still carries the same duties as a maintained school. Every mainstream academy must use its best endeavours to secure the special educational provision a pupil's SEN calls for, must have regard to the SEND Code of Practice, and must have a qualified-teacher SENCO whose role is strategic alongside the headteacher and governing board (Children and Families Act 2014, section 66; SEND Code of Practice 2015, chapter 6). Reading those duties across the whole estate is what makes consistency a trust responsibility rather than a local accident.

The levers that actually move provision

Once the strategy is owned centrally, the practical levers are well evidenced from trusts already doing this at scale:

1. A central director of SEND or inclusion so the work has a seat at the top table and a per-school improvement plan rather than ad hoc support.
2. Shared SENCO networks and trust-wide CPD so practice that works in one school spreads quickly to the others, with the SENCO role developed through the mandatory NPQ for SENCOs and a deputy-SENCO pipeline.
3. A standardised graduated approach (assess, plan, do, review) and a common SEND data set, so you can see where pupils are well supported and where they are not, and so reasonable adjustments are made consistently.
4. In-house specialist capacity such as shared speech and language, educational psychology or occupational therapy time, reducing reliance on costly external commissioning, plus resourced provision within mainstream schools where the estate needs it.

Build around where the system is heading

Any multi-year SEND strategy written now should plan for the direction of travel set out in the Schools White Paper (February 2026) and the Education for All Bill announced in the King's Speech, which propose a statutory Individual Support Plan duty for every school and would narrow EHCPs to the most complex needs from 2035 (with no change before September 2030 and current EHCP holders protected), alongside an extra £7bn for SEND to 2028-29. The practical read for a trust: invest now in universal and SEN-Support capacity and a strong graduated approach, rather than designing solely around today's EHCP numbers.

What to do this term

Take a single paper to the board: name the executive owner, confirm the link trustee or sub-committee, and commission a short baseline audit of SEND across every school. The audit, not the aspiration, is what turns a strategy into action. Free starting points include what a trust-wide SEND strategy should contain and how to benchmark your SEND register, and the DfE academy trust governance guide sets out the board's SEND oversight role.

This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.

This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.