When Everyone Owns Inclusion, Every Child Wins

“SEND and inclusion is everyone’s business.”

“If you get it right for children with SEND, you get it right for everyone.”

These two statements sit right at the heart of Lisa Henshall’s work across St Bart’s Multi Academy Trust with schools across Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, Cheshire East and Shropshire. As SEND Strategic Lead for 23 schools, Lisa is helping to drive a powerful cultural shift—one that turns SEND from a specialist’s silo into something shared and system-wide. Inclusion here isn’t a bolt-on. It’s the foundation.

Lisa’s approach to SEND isn’t about interventions, paperwork, or waiting for a diagnosis. It’s about relationships. It’s about trust-wide values. And most of all, it’s about meeting children where they are—and supporting every adult in the system to do the same.

Chosen by the Role

Lisa didn’t set out to work in SEND.

“Like many people working in a similar role, I didn’t go out to choose the role,” she explains. “I was chosen by the role.”

Her journey began in a classroom full of children with additional needs. She wasn’t a SENCO at the time, but the experience shaped everything that came after. That year, through working closely with her school’s SENCO, she realised something crucial: when you remove barriers for a few, learning improves for everyone.

That year gave me the clarity and purpose I needed,” she says. “It wasn’t about trying to fix children—it was about creating a space where every child could thrive.

It’s a message that still sits at the core of her work today. True inclusion isn’t about doing something extra for some children. It’s about making classrooms and schools work better for all children.

The Changing Role of the SENCO

Reflecting on her own time as a SENCO, Lisa says:

It used to be a bit of paperwork and mainly checking in on children. Now it’s referrals, EHCPs, funding applications, and hours and hours of documentation.”

And the more that paperwork grows, the further SENCOs are pulled away from where they’re most needed: in classrooms, working alongside staff, seeing the small things that make a big difference.

Lisa is clear: something has to give.

We need to make time for SENCOs to be present,” she says. “To coach staff. To work alongside children. To be visible in the learning.

That’s exactly what her team is working towards—creating systems that reduce the pressure on SENCOs as lone warriors, and instead build a culture where everyone takes responsibility for inclusion.

Whole-School Inclusion: Everyone’s Job

Lisa’s solution is simple, but powerful. Shift the mindset. Inclusion isn’t one person’s job—it’s everyone’s.

At St Bart’s, they are working towards every classroom observation including a focus on SEND and inclusion. Learning walks are structured around the EEF’s Five-a-Day principles, helping to keep the lens firmly on what the learning experience is like for every child in the room.

But these aren’t walk-throughs to “check teaching.” They’re walk-throughs to see the learning, from a child’s perspective. What’s accessible? What’s confusing? What could be better supported?

The idea is to build a deep sense of empathy and understanding—something that comes from being with children, not just reading about them.

Sit Next to a Child for a Day

One moment in particular changed Lisa’s thinking forever.

A school governor once asked me, ‘What would make the biggest difference for your children?’” Lisa recalls. “And I said, ‘Just sit next to them in class.

At St Bart’s, classroom visits aren’t about judging staff. They’re about understanding children.

When you sit with a child, you see what they’re missing. You see where they’re thriving. You notice what small things could unlock something really big,” Lisa says. “Empathy through proximity—it’s that simple.

Leadership at the Heart of Change

This isn’t just about SENCOs. Lisa works with a wide network of colleagues through their partnership with Whole Education and external SEND experts, including Natalie Packer, Gary Aubin and David Bartram (OBE), to make sure the work is rooted in strong evidence and practice. The trust also work with the EEF developing projects to further improve outcomes for children.

One of the trust’s most effective tools has been the Evaluate My School programme. It supports senior leaders to reflect on their SEND provision—not in isolation, and not as a SENCO-led audit—but together, as a leadership team.

The change has to come from leadership at all levels,” Lisa says. “Everyone has to be accountable for inclusion, whether they teach maths or music.

That accountability extends into curriculum planning, behaviour policies, CPD—all the key areas that shape school life. Inclusion isn’t a department. It’s a mindset.

From Diagnosis to Barriers

Another big shift Lisa is driving is around language and mindset.

We’ve moved away from asking ‘What diagnosis does this child have?’ to asking ‘What’s getting in the way of their learning?’” she says.

By focusing on barriers instead of labels, staff can be more responsive and more proactive. It also helps to remove some of the fear. Teachers and TAs don’t have to be experts in every diagnosis—they just need to understand what a child needs, and how to meet them where they are.

This reframing has been hugely powerful across the trust. It creates space for earlier support, greater compassion, and far fewer delays.

Built-In Belonging

At St Bart’s, inclusion is built into the classroom environment—not layered on top.

We talk a lot about built-in belonging,” Lisa says. “That means designing classrooms where every child feels safe, seen, and supported.

That includes:

• Predictable routines that reduce anxiety
• Calm, low-stimulation classrooms that support focus
• Clear visuals to help children navigate their day
• Safe spaces with shared language to support emotional regulation
• Technology tools that allow children to record, speak, or type their thoughts in ways that feel natural

These strategies might begin with children who have additional needs—but they end up helping everyone. As Lisa puts it:

Inclusion isn’t about fixing the child. It’s about making the environment work for them.

And when that happens, children don’t just access learning—they belong in it.

“I Wonder Why”

Lisa’s favourite phrase sums up the trust’s whole approach: “I wonder why.”

Those three words invite curiosity, empathy, and reflection. Why is this child struggling today? Why did they thrive yesterday? What’s changed? What do they need now?

Inclusion is a living, breathing culture,” Lisa says. “And culture grows through questions and shared values.

At St Bart’s, those questions are encouraged every day—by every adult in the building.

Everyone Wins

Inclusion isn’t an initiative. It’s not a checklist. And it certainly doesn’t belong to one person or team.

At St Bart’s, it’s something that belongs to everyone. And that’s what makes it powerful.

Because when everyone owns inclusion—every child wins.

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