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SAVE THE DATE Beyond Diagnosis: Rethinking SEND Categorisation, Identification and Support
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Beyond Diagnosis: Rethinking SEND Categorisation, Identification and Support

SAVE THE DATE Tuesday 12 January 2027

1:00 pm to 4:30 pm Refreshments from 12.30pm onwards

St Alban’s Church Hall, Holborn, London, EC1N 7RD

Please join us for an afternoon seminar exploring current debates about the role of categorisation and diagnosis within Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) policy and practice. The seminar will bring together leading researchers, policymakers, parents, charities and practitioners to examine emerging approaches that seek to move beyond diagnosis-led systems towards models that focus more directly on children’s strengths, needs and educational participation.

Contributors will consider developments in England and internationally, including needs-based approaches, the potential contribution of frameworks such as the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), and lessons from policy and practice in other jurisdictions. The event will provide opportunities for discussion and debate about how education systems should better access to support, equitable resource allocation and inclusive practice while reducing unnecessary reliance on diagnostic labels.

Contributors include:

Professor Susana Castro-Kemp

Professor Karen Guldberg

Dr Cathryn Knight

Amanda Watkins

 

The seminar will conclude with facilitated discussion and plenary sessions, providing participants with an opportunity to reflect on future directions for SEND policy, practice and research.

Further details and booking information will follow.

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Exploring how the experiences of adults with learning disabilities can shape education, transition planning and long‑term outcomes
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The SEN Policy Research Forum and London South Bank University’s Building Future Communities Research Centre invite you to an in-person collaborative seminar examining how the lived experiences of adults with learning disabilities can inform priorities for education, transition planning and meaningful life outcomes.
Bringing together researchers, practitioners, policymakers and people with lived experience, this event will explore what truly matters for young people as they move into adulthood – and how education systems can better support those aspirations.

Keyworth Arts and Media Centre, London, England

Thursday 4 June 2026, 12:30 PM – 4:30 PM
Book your FREE space here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sen-policy-research-forum-seminar-tickets-1988070010920
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SAVE THE DATE: What can we learn from the experience of adults with learning disabilities about priorities for education and transition?
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We are pleased to announce an upcoming SEN Policy Research Forum seminar exploring how the experiences of adults with learning disabilities can inform priorities for education, transition planning, and long‑term outcomes. The session will bring together researchers, practitioners, policymakers and people with lived experience to consider what truly matters for young people as they move into adulthood.

Date: 4 June 2026
Location: Central London (venue TBC)

Further details, speakers and registration information will follow shortly.

Please save the date — we look forward to welcoming you to this important discussion.

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Tuesday 18th November 

18 November 2025: Moving forward with SEND and inclusion:  positive practice and policy options

Venue: St Alban’s Centre, Holborn Brooke Street, London EC1N 7RD


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Moving forward with SEND and inclusion:  positive practice and policy options
Tuesday 18th November
You’re warmly invited to our upcoming Special Educational Needs Policy Forum seminar on Tuesday 18th November. This timely event comes as we await further developments following delays to White Paper. The seminar will explore some of the key themes expected to shape future policy – including funding, accountability and resourced provision – and offer practical, evidence-informed ways forward for schools, settings and policymakers.
Agenda:

Time  
Session Title
9.30am – 10.00am
Refreshments on arrival
10.00am-11.30am
Supporting and funding pupils in mainstream schools and settings 
Introduction: Peter Gray
Jo-Anne Sanders, Head of Education and Jayne Whitton, Principal Educational Psychologist, Kirklees Council
Group discussions
11.30am-11.45am
Break
11.45am-1.15pm
Improving accountability 
Imogen Steele, Policy and Public Affairs Officer, Contact
Annamarie Hassall, CEO nasen
Group discussions
1.15pm-1.45pm
Break - lunch is provided
1.45pm-3.15pm
Resourced provision 
Brian Lamb, Visiting Professor of Special Educational Needs and Disability Derby University and NatSIP Associate and Julie Wharton, Senior Lecturer, University of Winchester
Vasilis Strogilos, Associate Professor, University of Southampton
Phillipa Sherlock Lewis, CEO, Prince Albert Community Trust and Sumayya Patel – Head of Prince Albert School, Birmingham
Group discussions
3.15pm-4.00pm
Plenary ending at 4pm
This link also allows you to share any dietary or access requirements. All refreshments are provided free of charge, so your responses will help us cater appropriately.
Venue
St Alban’s Centre, Holborn
Brooke Street, London EC1N 7RD
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SAVE THE DATE: Moving forward with SEND and inclusive positive practice and policy options
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Join us for a timely and practical discussion on the future of education for pupils with SEND. While the publication date of the Schools White Paper remains uncertain, there is no shortage of pressing issues to explore. There is still an opportunity to come together to explore experiences and ideas about how to shape the future direction of SEND policy and practice. By sharing a range of perspectives and hopefully some practical solutions, we can help build a more inclusive and accountable education landscape for pupils with SEND.
This event will bring together academics, education professionals, parents/carers, disabled people and other stakeholders to consider:
  • Supporting and funding pupils in mainstream schools and settings
  • The role and future of resourced provisions and units
  • School accountability and inclusive practice
Lunch and refreshments will be provided.
9.30am-4pm 18 November 2025
Central London venue tbc
Moving forward with SEND and inclusive positive practice and policy options
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Next Event: 10 January 2025 1-4.30pm Reviewing curriculum and assessment from a special educational needs and disability (SEND) perspective
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Reviewing curriculum and assessment from a special educational needs and disability (SEND) perspective
Our next seminar will be in person and online on Friday 10th January from 1pm – 4.30pm  
Room at UCL to be confirmed.

 

Our speakers are: Gary Aubin, Peter Imray, Richard Rieser and Daniel Stavrou
They will be considering the following:
  • What would an inclusive curriculum be like from the point of view of learners with SEND?
  • What would an inclusive assessment system be like from the point of view of learners with SEND?
  • What is worth learning and assessing?
  • How might we imagine things differently?
Please follow this link to book an in-person place.

 

Please email Julie.wharton@winchester.ac.uk if you intend to join on Teams.
Speaker biographies
Gary Aubin is the author of The Lone SENDCO, a handbook of 300 questions and answers for busy SENDCOs. His second book, The Parent’s Guide to SEND, is being released in early 2025.
He leads on a national SEND School Improvement programme with Whole Education, supporting schools and MATs to drive a whole-school approach to supporting pupils with SEND.
Gary is the Education Endowment Foundation’s SEND Associate. In this role, he has worked extensively on sharing the evidence base behind high-quality teaching for SEND, as well as advised on the development of the SENCO NPQ.
As a Consultant, Gary has spoken internationally, advised the BBC, written content for the National Institute of Teaching and given talks to hundreds of Trust, Local Authority and school audiences.
Gary led on SEND provision for a Multi Academy Trust of 10 primary and secondary schools for several years. He is a secondary teacher, former primary and secondary SENDCO and former secondary Head of Year. Gary also authors the SENDMattersUK blog.
Peter Imray has been involved in the education and welfare of children, young people and adults with learning difficulties for over 35 years as a teacher, school leader, trainer, writer and coach. For most of this time he was employed by The Bridge School, an outstanding school for children and young people aged 2-19, with severe learning difficulties, profound and multiple learning difficulties and/or autism, in Islington, North London, and was Head of the Bridge School’s Training and Consultancy Service from its inception in 1997 until 2012. Since then, he has been working as a freelance, particularly concentrating on writing and editing specialist curriculum materials for Equals, a UK based not-for-profit charity.
The areas of profound, complex, severe and moderate learning difficulties are very specialist areas, making up less than two per cent of the whole school population, and perhaps for that reason their needs can often get overlooked in national educational initiatives. Peter has always sought to take the line that these learners have different and quite unique ways of learning, and understanding the nature of their learning difficulty is the key to successful educational provision.

Richard Rieser is a disability campaigner and expert in inclusion. He is the managing director of World of Inclusion Ltd and is an expert disabled international equality trainer, consultant, film maker and writer and teacher.

Dr Daniel Stavrou is Assistant Director – Education and Equalities, Council for Disabled Children / National Children’s Bureau. He oversees the contract delivery of NCB’s Education and Equalities team, focussing on strands of work that promote best practice around inclusion and special education provision. He is also Policy Vice Chair of NCB family member Special Educational Consortium and has represented the SEC giving evidence to parliamentary Select Committees; delivers training on SEND topics, including pedagogy and inclusion; is the National Coordinator for UK (England) on the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education. He is a qualified teacher, with previous experience as TA / LSA and has worked predominantly in the further education sector, both in mainstream and specialist provision, with additional experience managing post-16 preparation for work and adult life for young people with SEND in the third sector.
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Save the date – 10 January 2025
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Our next SEN Policy Research Forum event will take place on 10 January 2025 (not 6 December as previously advertised). Apologies for any inconvenience.

The focus will be on curriculum. More details about the speakers and venue, together with booking details, to follow.

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1–4pm on Friday 21st June 

Re-engaging with education: The causes, risks and implications of disengagement from education, and how we might do things differently.

Venue: University College London. The seminar will be held in the Drama Studio, which is situated on Level 1 of the main UCL Institute of Education building, at 20 Bedford Way, WC1H 0AL.


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You are warmly invited to our next free SEN Policy Research Forum Seminar

Re-engaging with education: The causes, risks and implications of disengagement from education, and how we might do things differently.

Our speakers are:
Ellie Costello, Director, Square Peg
Dr Ian Thompson, Co-Principal Investigator: Excluded Lives: The Political Economies of School Exclusion, University of Oxford
Steve Chalke, Founder, Oasis Charitable Trust
Kerrigen Marriner, Head of Behaviour and Attendance Service, London Borough of Tower Hamlets

The coverage/aims of the session:

In the light of the government’s recent ‘attendance counts’ campaign, this seminar aims to explore the following questions:
To what extent does the government’s Attendance Counts campaign acknowledge and address the underlying issues that lead to persistent absence?
What are the causes of disengagement from education?
What are the implications of this disengagement from education?
How might we imagine things differently?

Please follow this link to sign up: https://onlinestore.ucl.ac.uk/conferences-and-events/ucl-institute-of-education-b14/ioe-phd-centre-for-inclusive-education-ka7/ka7-sen-policy-research-forum-seminar-re-engaging-with-education

We hope to see you there.

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