Building Connections. Driving Inclusion. Welcome to the IEC Blog.
It’s been a year since we launched the Inclusive Education Community (IEC) and with over 50 organisations in its community directory, the IEC is growing not just in numbers, but also in sector knowledge and confidence.
We're launching this blog to share what we've learnt, reflect on the challenges and opportunities facing inclusive education, and explore the policies, practice and partnerships shaping the sector. Whether you're a practitioner, policymaker, researcher or simply passionate about inclusion, this is where we'll share the conversations, ideas and learning shaping the field.
Why was the IEC needed?
Spring 2025 marked an all-time record for the number of primary school children expelled from school – a 23 per cent rise compared to Spring 2024. Fundamentally, the IEC exists to prevent headlines like these and to understand the reasons for these growing numbers.
And the IEC recognised a crucial gap that needed bridging to do this essential prevention work. Collaboration in any sector is not easy, but for the education sector who is governed by term times and a whole host of complicated pressures, finding space and time to connect with others can often feel like a luxury. The IEC was created to establish a collaborative space that connects not only those working within education, but also the wider network of organisations that play a vital role in supporting children, young people and families, making those connections easier to find, build and sustain.
Our aim has always been to bring partners together to share learning, exchange experiences and challenge one another's thinking. In our first year, we've also learnt that creating connections is only the beginning. Collaboration around inclusive education needs community, infrastructure and shared spaces where organisations can connect, learn, share evidence and build together.
Building on what we’ve learnt
Our first year has been a series of events, policy analysis and building a stronger evidence base. Across these activities, a clear theme has emerged: organisations are keen to connect but meaningful collaboration needs time, trust, shared language and the right conditions.
Our events have explored what collaboration looks like from different points in the system. In September 2025, Working Together for Families - Advancing Cross-Sector Collaboration, brought together organisations supporting families as they navigate systems intended to be inclusive, but which can often feel fragmented and difficult to access.
Together, these events highlighted that inclusive education doesn't happen in isolation; it depends on strong relationships across schools, local authorities, health, charities and other partners across the wider system.
We also looked at how sector knowledge can inform policy and practice. Between December 2025 and February 2026, Influence in Action: Stories, Policy and Systems -supported organisations to use their evidence, experience and insight to engage with policy, while building their understanding the systems surrounding it. These sessions demonstrated both how much organisations have to learn from one another, but how much policymakers have to gain by listening to the expertise that already exists across the sector.
In May 2026, we published Creating the conditions for inclusion: Recommendations in response to the schools white paper and SEND reforms - our response to the February 2026 White Paper. That response reinforced one of the clearest reflections from our first year: inclusive education is not just a matter of policy intent, but of creating the conditions that allow inclusion to happen in practice. Almost nobody argues against inclusion in principle. The challenge is translating that principle into practice when resources are stretched, staff are under pressure and systems pull in different directions.
Across our work this year, we have seen how important it is to create shared spaces where organisations can connect, learn from one another, build evidence and begin to identify opportunities for shared work.
The future of inclusive education
As we look to our second year, we're reflecting on the impact of what we've built so far alongside the significant changes taking place across national education policy.
And we have hope for inclusive education.
The 2025/26 academic year may prove to be a defining moment for inclusive education. With inclusion now one of Ofsted’s graded evaluation areas for schools, it is becoming a more visible part of accountability. Over time, these reports may offer a clearer picture of how inclusion is being understood, supported and assessed across schools.
The Schools White Paper, Every Child Achieving and Thriving, also reinforced the importance of inclusive practice recognising that ‘children’s outcomes are still – too often and too much – determined by background or circumstances,’ and aiming to reduce the absence rate by 1.3 percentage points by 2029.
But policy alone cannot deliver inclusion. As schools, local authorities, health, charities and other partners respond to these changes, cross sector collaboration and shared learning will be key to embedding inclusion. We exist to support that collaboration for organisations committed to inclusion for every young person.
This blog will continue to evolve alongside the IEC, bringing together policy developments, examples of effective practice, emerging evidence and reflections from across the sector. Whether you want to read, listen, connect or contribute, start a conversation or build something with others, the IEC is a community you can engage with in a way that is useful and realistic for you. We hope you’ll be part of the conversation and if you have a story, insight or experience to share, we’d love to feature your voice in a future post.