iSEND Weekly: Education Update: What’s Changing, What’s Being Debated and What to Watch

Published on 8 August 2026 at 12:53

Welcome back to iSEND Weekly.

iSEND has been a little quieter than usual this week while I’ve taken some time away for my wedding and a much-needed few days with family and friends.

So, rather than trying to create a weekly roundup where there hasn’t been one, this edition takes a different approach.

There has actually been a considerable amount happening across education during the past few weeks. From SEND funding and curriculum reform to attendance, teacher pay and the growing place of artificial intelligence in schools, there are several developments worth knowing about.

This isn’t intended to tell anyone what to think.

Instead, here’s a straightforward summary of some of the significant announcements, discussions and emerging themes and why they may matter to families, schools and professionals.

A quick geographical note: many of the government announcements covered here apply specifically to England. Education remains a devolved responsibility across the four nations of the UK.

SEND: more funding aimed directly at mainstream inclusion

One of the clearest directions emerging from the Department for Education is a stronger emphasis on supporting children with SEND successfully within mainstream education.

For 2026–27, the new Inclusive Mainstream Fund is worth more than £500 million annually across mainstream provision, including £400 million for schools. The stated aim is to help settings become more “inclusive by design”, with earlier support available without children necessarily having to wait for diagnosis or a statutory process.

Alongside this, the government launched a consultation in July on a proposed local SEND inclusion formula. The idea is to allow participating local authorities to move additional high-needs funding directly into mainstream school budgets from 2027–28, giving schools greater capacity to intervene earlier. No final decision has yet been made and the consultation remains part of the policy-development process.

Why this matters

The principle is significant.

For years, families and schools have raised concerns about systems in which substantial support can sometimes feel dependent upon securing a diagnosis, EHCP or specialist threshold first.

More money reaching mainstream schools earlier could potentially allow needs to be supported sooner.

The important questions now concern implementation: how consistently funding will reach individual children, how schools will be held accountable for its use, whether staffing and specialist expertise will keep pace, and whether provision will genuinely become more inclusive rather than simply transferring additional responsibility to already stretched schools.

Those questions are likely to remain central as the reforms develop.

EOTAS and alternative provision are also under review

A separate government consultation is looking at children and young people receiving Education Otherwise Than At School (EOTAS), education because of health needs, and provision through accredited online education.

The Department for Education says it wants clearer responsibilities, stronger quality assurance and better outcomes, including reintegration into school where appropriate. Importantly, the consultation is seeking views from children, young people, parents, schools, local authorities and professionals.

This is an area where balance will be particularly important.

Families need confidence that education outside a conventional school setting is safe, appropriate and of good quality. At the same time, some children require genuinely individualised arrangements because school is not currently an appropriate environment for them.

The debate is therefore unlikely to be simply about whether children should be “in school” or “out of school”, but about whether the provision around each child is appropriate, accountable and capable of improving long-term outcomes.

Curriculum reform: breadth versus academic rigour

Another major discussion has re-emerged around what children should actually learn at school.

England’s Curriculum and Assessment Review has already argued for a balance between strong foundations in reading, writing and mathematics and broader access to subjects including music, art, drama, sport and vocational learning. It also places emphasis on preparing children for both life and employment and developing an assessment system capable of recognising a wider range of strengths.

Recent political discussion has pushed that debate further, particularly around whether some pupils should have greater access to technical and vocational pathways earlier.

There are legitimate arguments on both sides.

Supporters of greater flexibility argue that a highly academic model does not allow every learner to demonstrate their strengths and may leave some young people disengaged.

Those urging caution point to improvements in England’s international academic performance and argue that broadening pathways must not result in lower expectations for particular groups of children. Recent commentary illustrates that this remains an active and contested debate.

The most constructive question may therefore be less about academic versus vocational education and more about how schools maintain ambitious expectations while recognising that achievement can take different forms.

Attendance remains a major national concern

Attendance continues to be one of the biggest challenges facing schools in England.

Department for Education figures published in July showed an overall attendance rate of 93.14% across the 2025–26 academic year to that point, with 18.66% of pupils persistently absent, meaning they had missed at least 10% of available sessions.

The government also updated its statutory attendance guidance in July, reinforcing expectations around cooperation between schools, local authorities and families, particularly where pupils are persistently or severely absent.

There is an important nuance here.

Attendance statistics tell us that children are missing education; they do not necessarily tell us why.

Health, anxiety, unmet SEND, family circumstances, safeguarding concerns, disengagement and school experience can all sit beneath absence. Effective attendance work therefore needs both clear expectations and careful investigation of the barriers experienced by individual children.

A government-commissioned review into youth worklessness is also expected to recommend much earlier identification of children at risk of later becoming NEET..... not in education, employment or training, potentially beginning during primary education. That recommendation has not yet become policy, but it reflects the growing emphasis on intervening before difficulties become entrenched.

Teacher pay and school budgets

Teachers in England are due to receive a 3.5% pay increase from September 2026, followed by 3% in 2027. The government has announced an additional £700 million for schools in 2026–27 to help meet staff-pay costs, increasing to £1.115 billion the following year.

As with many school-funding announcements, the headline figure doesn’t end the discussion.

Schools will be looking carefully at how far additional funding matches their individual staffing costs, particularly alongside pressures involving SEND provision, support staff, buildings, energy and wider operating costs.

For parents, much of this may feel distant from everyday school life, but workforce stability matters: recruitment, retention and staff workload ultimately influence the consistency children experience in classrooms.

AI is rapidly becoming an education issue, not simply a technology issue

Another development worth watching extends well beyond England.

In June, the OECD and European Commission published an AI Literacy Framework for Primary and Secondary Education. Rather than focusing solely on teaching children how to use AI tools, it argues that pupils need to understand how AI works, critically evaluate its outputs and consider issues including ethics, bias and responsible use.

The Department for Education has also updated its guidance for schools around generative AI and data protection, including how personal information should be protected when AI systems are used.

Internationally, UNESCO has similarly been highlighting AI governance, digital capability and the need to ensure technological change does not outpace educational safeguards.

The direction seems increasingly clear: conversations about AI in education are moving beyond “Should schools use it?”

The more useful questions are becoming:

How should it be used?

When shouldn’t it be used?

What should children understand about it?

And which distinctly human skills become even more important because AI exists?

Those questions will be relevant to British and international schools alike.

A wider international picture

While national systems differ considerably, several themes appearing in England are also visible internationally.

UNESCO continues to highlight education financing as a global concern. At its July Transforming Education Summit +4 discussions, ministers considered the challenge of increasing investment at a time when 113 countries spend more servicing debt than they do on education.

Across international education policy, there is also continued focus on digital literacy, inclusive education, teacher development and preparing learners for societies being reshaped by technology.

Different countries will inevitably reach different policy solutions.

But the underlying questions are remarkably similar:

How do we build education systems that remain ambitious while becoming more inclusive, adaptable and relevant to the lives children will actually lead?

Five things worth watching

For families and professionals trying to make sense of the volume of education news, these are probably the five areas worth keeping an eye on over the coming months:

How England’s wider SEND reforms translate into everyday mainstream provision.
Whether additional SEND funding produces earlier support without creating new inconsistencies between areas.
How curriculum reform balances academic knowledge with creative, technical and vocational learning.
Whether attendance policy increasingly addresses the causes of absence alongside the numbers themselves.
How schools develop responsible approaches to AI while protecting children’s data, learning and critical thinking.

None of these stories is finished.

And that is probably the most important point.

Consultations are not final policy, announcements are not the same as implementation, and the real impact of education reform is usually determined by what eventually happens in classrooms.

Looking Ahead at iSEND

After a short summer pause, our regular iSEND content returns next week.

Our theme will be:

Growing Through Play

We’ll be exploring something children instinctively understand but adults sometimes underestimate:

Play is serious learning.

Monday: Lola’s Tip

🐶 Playing is one of the best ways to learn.

A simple child-facing reminder that learning doesn’t always need to feel like work.

Tuesday: iSEND Learning

📘 Why Play Matters More Than Many Parents Realise

We’ll explore the development happening underneath everyday play.....communication, executive function, creativity, regulation and problem-solving.

We’ll also share our one question-led Reel of the week:

“What if play is more valuable than another worksheet?”

Wednesday: Milo’s Challenge

🐶 Invent Your Own Game

Milo will challenge children to create a game, decide the rules and teach someone else how to play.

Thursday: iSEND Infographic

💡 Does Play Really Count as Learning?

A quick, saveable guide breaking down what different types of play are actually developing.

Friday: iSEND Infographic

💡 5 Skills Children Build Through Play

A practical deeper look at the learning adults may not immediately see.

Saturday: iSEND Weekly

📰 Growing Through Play

We’ll bring the week’s ideas together and explore why creating space for play matters long beyond childhood.

Ian’s Reflection

Education moves quickly.

New policies, consultations, reports and headlines appear almost every week, and it can sometimes be difficult to separate genuine change from political discussion or proposals that may never reach the classroom.

That’s one of the roles I’d like iSEND Weekly to play.

Not telling families or professionals what they should think, but occasionally slowing the conversation down enough to ask:

What has actually been announced? What is still being discussed? And what might this mean for children?