Fewer than a quarter of classroom practitioners believe their schools has sufficient time and staffing in order to meet increasing government expectations around inclusion and wellbeing, a report has found.
However, where there is capacity, more than nine out ten believe their setting can deliver these in a joined-up way. This falls 41% where there is no capacity.
And although 85% of staff said they understood what inclusive practice looks like, only just over half said that national guidance and local expectations provided a consistent steer on what to do in practice.
The report Inclusion Readiness in Schools: Evidence on Capacity, Confidence and Workforce Conditions, produced jointly by Thrive and ImpactEd, polled 1,018 education professionals about how they felt about delivering government expectations in practice.
Ministers unveiled plans for greater inclusion in schools in their Schools White Paper last month, with more hubs and units in mainstream schools to support children with SEND.
In many settings inclusion is currently being sustained through staff effort rather than sustainable system capacity
The study found that while school staff reported strong confidence in identifying SEND and recognising mental health and wellbeing needs, confidence was lower in adapting the appropriate teaching practice and seeking support from outside agencies.
Almost seven out of ten practitioners said the demands around inclusion and wellbeing were placing a strain on staff retention and mental health.
“In many settings inclusion is currently being sustained through staff effort rather than sustainable system capacity,” the report said.
Expertise in inclusion was often concentrated within specialist roles, such as SENCOs and safeguarding leaders, rather than distributed across the whole workforce.
The report concluded: “The picture this survey presents is not one of a workforce that lacks commitment, understanding or skill.
“Across 1,018 practitioners, clarity about what is expected is high, self-assessed confidence in identifying and responding to need is comparatively strong, and the free-text responses consistently describe staff who care deeply about the children they work with.
“What the data describes, with equal consistency, is a gap between that commitment and the conditions needed to act on it.”
