Best Practice

Inspecting SEND provision: What does Ofsted look for?

Inclusion Disability Inspection advice/guidance SENCOs EHCPs Ofsted
In previous Ofsted frameworks, SEND provision perhaps did not get the attention it deserved. With a higher profile in the EIF, Suzanne O’Connell asks how schools can ensure provision matches expectation


The SEND Code of Practice is clear. Schools must have high expectations and ambitions for their children with SEND (DfE, 2015).

The inspection of SEND provision is at the heart of the Education Inspection Framework (EIF) and the lowest 20% of attainers are the target of careful scrutiny through observations, work trawls, and subject leader discussions (Ofsted, 2019).

Inspectors expect to see that pupils with SEND are receiving the same entitlement and “cultural capital” as their peers.

“In class they were following up how the curriculum translated into practice in the classroom for the least able children,” explained headteachers Sandra LaPorta and Gemma Reynolds from Middlewich Primary School in Cheshire.

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