SEND Reforms – what does it mean for trusts with Simon Tanner and Helen Bray

SENDcast Episode

SEND Reforms – what does it mean for trusts

with Simon Tanner and Helen Bray

The SEND reforms have generated a lot of conversation – but one perspective has been missing from the debate. What does it mean for trusts?

In this episode, Dale is joined by Helen Bray, Director of Inclusion at St Francis CMAT, and Simon Tanner, Director of School Improvement for SEND at Authentic Education, for a wide-ranging and at times refreshingly candid conversation about what the proposed reforms mean at trust level.

Together, they explore:

– Why accountability and capacity must move together – and why simply shifting responsibility away from local authorities without the right funding and workforce risks relocating the pressure rather than solving the problem.

– What the standardisation of EHCPs and ISPs could mean in practice, and why trusts working across multiple local authorities stand to benefit most.

– How the Mainstream Inclusion Fund will work differently across schools of different sizes – and why trusts can’t simply pool the money.

– Why Helen’s trust has moved away from a standalone SEND register and replaced it with a vulnerability dashboard – and why that distinction matters for the children who fall through the gaps.

– Whether the ‘Experts at Hand’ proposal can actually deliver in practice, given the existing shortage of educational psychologists and speech and language therapists.

– Why executive function training is urgently needed – not just for TAs, but for every teacher in every secondary school.

“If we’re going to formally shift greater responsibility away from the local authority model, we have to ask whether schools actually have the expertise, the funding, and the infrastructure to deliver on it — otherwise we’re not solving a problem, we’re just relocating where the pressure sits.”

— Helen Bray

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