with Maria Carney, Whole School SEND
Universal SEND Services offers government-funded special educational needs training for schools. Today, Maria Carney gives us an update and how your school can get free training.
It’s been a while since we shared news about Universal SEND Services, an ambitious programme, funded until 2025 by the Department for Education. The programme’s aim is to upskill the education workforce’s ability to support children with special educational needs, so more learners have their SEND needs identified and met effectively. This should, in turn, result in more success for young people in schools and Further Education settings, enabling them to be better prepared for employment.
The programme is delivered by nasen, through the Whole School SEND consortium, in strategic partnership with the Education and Training Foundation and the Autism Education Trust, along with key delivery partners in the education community, such as Real Group.
Our training is suitable for professionals both in schools and in FE. The Continuing Professional Development (CPD) available offers practitioners a range of learning journeys—from Short Hops to Round the World—to suit every role and career stage. We hope people who use our services will start thinking about how we can all work together to benefit learners with SEND, from school to FE and beyond.
Coproduction at the core
A strong emphasis on co-production sits at the heart of the programme. The members of our Young Person’s Advisory Group all have lived experience of the SEND system in school and colleges. This group of 16-25-year-olds ensures the voice of the expert runs through everything we do.
Their contribution is complemented by our (adult) Advisory Group, which encompasses a wide range of stakeholders from the sector – including SNJ’s Sharon and Tania. A young person also co-chairs this group, with support. This inclusive sector-led approach helps us approach our work with curiosity and ensures programme content is relevant and evidence-based. Both groups have been particularly central in the development of our flagship product – our Online SEND CPD units.
These units are a great way to explore some of the most commonly observed barriers to learning in classrooms and other learning environments regardless of age, label or area of need. Each one takes under an hour to complete and provides clear guidance on adaptations to help meet the needs of all learners. And, as they don’t need to be completed in order, they are ideal for professionals who need to tap into specific advice as and when they need it without the luxury of time for in-depth research.
Over 99% of the people who’ve used the units tell us that their confidence in identifying and meeting the needs of their learning, and that they’re likely to incorporate changes to their practice as a result. Please help us spread the word by mentioning them to any practitioners you come into contact with!
Coproduction on the wider stage
As well as embedding a collaborative approach to producing programme content, you will not be surprised to hear that we also strongly advocate that coproduction between schools and families – the willingness and ability to work together as equal partners to plan, implement, and review provisions for children with SEND – is critical to delivering an inclusive education.
Most parents and carers know their child or young person better than anyone else, and they are almost always the best advocates for what works for a child or young person. It makes sense, therefore, that when families and schools co-produce, we create a supportive and effective learning environment that caters to the unique needs of each child and sets the stage for success. This notion underpins all aspects of our work.
So, recently, when we developed a suite of four ‘Toolkits’, each designed for a different persona within the education workforce, there was no way we were leaving a Coproduction and Partnership Toolkit off the list.
Coproduction and Partnership Toolkit
The increased focus on how mainstream settings should support learners with SEND is one of education’s hot topics right now, yet we know that confidence in practitioners remains low.
The idea behind the Coproduction and Partnership Toolkit was to help practitioners get the best possible support from the (extensive) programme content by bringing together the most relevant resources, articles and training in one place.
We hope that by inviting more practitioners to reflect on the benefits of co-production, we’ll help to build an education system that places a holistic view of the learner at the centre, and which leads to a truly person-centred approach with targeted support that is more likely to be effective.
More information
- Read more about support available through the Universal SEND Services programme
- Explore the Toolkits for yourself
Also read:
- Whole School SEND Spotlight: Developmental Language Disorder Guide
- Whole School SEND Spotlight: The Autism Resource Suite
- How will the new ‘Universal SEND Services’ programme help for learners with SEND?
- Children with SEND deserve better than being made pawns in the VAT wars
- SNJ’s 7-point open letter to Bridget Phillipson, new Secretary of State for Education
- Why does every school need to know about Whole School SEND? And how you can help
- Improving SEND provision: Co-produced resources for the whole school
- NAO: The Government has no clear SEND plan and should consider “whole-system reform” to incentivise mainstream inclusion
What kind of government is “bold” enough to scrap statutory EHCPs from vulnerable children?May 16, 2025
The SEND reforms in the Schools White Paper reveal rights given, and rights stripped awayFebruary 24, 2026
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