Connect - Training - Sept2026

What Should Career-Long SEND Training Really Look Like?

Alan Gardner Alan Gardner is an Account Manager in Education, working with schools, Multi-Academy Trusts, Local Authorities, and Virtual Schools across the North East and North West to help them access the training and support they need to improve outcomes for children and young people. With a particular passion for Attachment & Trauma, Relationships, Behaviour, SEND, and wellbeing, Alan works closely with education leaders to understand their challenges and connect them with practical solutions that make a meaningful difference.

The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) provision continues to sit at the centre of national conversation in education.

Rising demand, increasing complexity of need and growing expectations on schools have renewed focus on how effectively the system supports learners.

For many years, SEND training has varied significantly in both quality and consistency.

Almost half of primary and secondary teachers report that additional training would help build their confidence in supporting pupils with SEND. The Government’s white paper, “Every Child Achieving and Thriving”, released earlier this year, marked a positive step forward, recognising that workforce development must play a central role in improving outcomes.

Supporting pupils with additional needs is no longer viewed as the responsibility of specialists, but as a core part of inclusive practice, school improvement and everyday classroom teaching.

The question is no longer whether more training is needed, but what that training must deliver in practice.

Rising Demand and Classroom Realities There are now over 1.8 million pupils in England identified with special educational needs, an increase of 91,400 pupils since 2025. The proportion of pupils with an education, health and care (EHC) plan has risen to 6.0%, up from 5.3% in 2025, while the proportion receiving SEN support has increased to 14.8%, up from 14.2%.

For teachers and support staff, this demand is felt most acutely in the classroom. Many are supporting pupils with overlapping needs within the same lesson, while balancing curriculum expectations, behaviour, attendance and wellbeing.

In practice, staff are making frequent, highstakes decisions throughout the day. They are adapting tasks, responding to behaviour and supporting pupils whose needs may not be immediately clear. These situations rarely follow a set process, and there is often no single correct response. What matters is the quality and consistency of adult responses in the moment.

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This includes recognising when a pupil is struggling, adjusting approaches quickly and responding to behaviour in ways that reflect underlying need.

When this is done well, staff move from uncertainty to clarity. Decisions become more consistent, responses more considered, and pupils experience a more predictable environment.

Where responses vary, pupils experience that inconsistency directly. This can affect their sense of safety, their ability to engage and their overall experience of school. For staff, inconsistent approaches can also create uncertainty, increasing pressure on workload and confidence over time.

What SEND Training Needs to Deliver in Today’s Classrooms SEND training must do more than build awareness.

It must prepare staff to respond to pupils’ needs in real time, within the complexity of everyday classroom environments. It should equip staff with practical strategies, establish shared approaches and support consistent responses to need.

The value of SEND training lies not in what is covered, but in what it changes. It must lead to confident, consistent action, so pupils experience the right support at the right time.

1. Building Confidence in Everyday Classroom Practice Effective SEND training is measured by how staff respond in the moment, not what they can recall afterwards. Classroom decisions are immediate and often unpredictable. Staff are adapting tasks, responding to behaviour and supporting pupils without always having the space to pause or refer back to guidance.

2. Creating Consistency Across the Whole School The impact of SEND training is not determined by individual understanding alone, but by how consistently that understanding is applied across a school. For pupils, inconsistency in adult responses can be one of the biggest barriers to feeling secure and able to engage.

While SENCOs and specialist roles remain essential, pupils’ day-to-day experience is shaped by decisions made by all staff. Without shared approaches, support becomes variable and pupils are left navigating an environment that feels unpredictable.

Effective training establishes clear, shared ways of responding to need, creating alignment across staff without removing professional judgement. Over time, this becomes embedded in school culture, reducing variability and strengthening provision.

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Training must reflect this reality. It should equip staff with practical responses they can apply instinctively, not just theoretical understanding.

Learn more: welcome@nasen.org.uk Talk to us: 01827 311500 Visit our website: www.nasen.org.uk

3. Developing a Deeper Understanding of Need In practice, staff are not simply responding to diagnoses. They are responding to behaviour, communication and patterns of need as they present in the classroom.

Training that focuses too heavily on categories risks oversimplifying this. Many pupils present with overlapping or evolving needs that do not fit neatly into a single label. What matters is whether staff can interpret what they are seeing and respond appropriately.

Training must therefore support staff to recognise underlying drivers, understand how needs present in different contexts and respond in ways that are proportionate and supportive. At its core, this means recognising behaviour as communication and prioritising understanding before intervention.

4. Embedding Training into Whole-School Culture Training does not create change on its own. One-off sessions or isolated initiatives rarely lead to lasting impact. Without opportunities to apply, reflect and refine approaches, learning remains theoretical and quickly fades.

For training to be effective, it must be embedded into how a school operates, with space for discussion, reinforced approaches and visible consistency.

Turning Training into Meaningful Impact The wider response to the Government’s Education White Paper has reflected optimism and caution. Many have welcomed the focus on inclusion, workforce development and earlier support for pupils with additional needs. At the same time, sector leaders have highlighted pressures around workload, staffing, funding and access to specialist support.

Schools are being asked to deliver increasingly inclusive practice within already stretched systems. As expectations around inclusion rise, the conditions in which staff work must also be part of the conversation.

This is not about lowering expectations. It is about ensuring those expectations are supported in a way that is realistic and sustainable. SEND training must be understood as a whole-school priority, built into systems, culture and everyday practice.

Ultimately, the measure of success will not be how widely training is delivered. It will be whether it changes what happens in classrooms. Without time, support and confidence to apply training in practice, schools will continue to fall short of meeting pupils’ needs, despite the investment, intent and policies in place.

Learn more: welcome@nasen.org.uk Talk to us: 01827 311500 Visit our website: www.nasen.org.uk