SEND and Schools White Paper

Truro and Penwith Academy Trust welcomes the publication of the Government’s new SEND and Schools White Paper, Every Child Achieving and Thriving. The reforms set out the Government's vision to broaden children’s educational experiences, strengthen inclusion across all schools, and ensure that specialist support is available when and where it is needed.

The white paper addresses key challenges for the education sectors - a social justice challenge to strengthen inclusion and improve SEND support, a social contract challenge to strengthen engagement and broaden the curriculum and enrichment opportunities for all our children, and the challenge to intentionally design our education system that works for all children. 

These priorities strongly align with TPAT’s longstanding approach to equitable, inclusive education. As a Trust, we already have a strong collaboration with the Local Authority with specialist Area Resource Bases in our primary and secondary schools, and established support bases across many of our schools and strong provision to support need in all of our schools. We will be responding to the consultation to reflect on the opportunity to build on the inclusive practices we already have in place, strengthening early intervention, specialist access, and high‑quality universal provision.

We welcome the introduction of new Trust Standards focused on inclusion, transparency, and community collaboration. TPAT is already contributing at both local and regional levels to the development of a shared Inclusion Charter that will help schools across Cornwall and the South West to define and deliver high quality, consistent practice.

As the consultation progresses, we will work closely with families, staff, and local partners to understand the transition to the new system, and the evolving specialist support landscape. We will also continue to engage nationally with Trust leaders, educational stakeholders, and the Department for Education to ensure the needs and perspectives of rural Cornish schools are reflected in future policy. Our commitment remains to ensure these reforms lead to better outcomes for all children, particularly those with the highest levels of need.

With the promise of increased funding, strengthened specialist access, and simplified systems, we are optimistic that this new national direction will further support us to enable every child in our Trust to achieve and thrive.