IncludEd 2027: the inclusion conference for UK educators

Inclusion by Design - IncludEd 2027

Saturday 16 January 2027 | 10am-4:30pm | UCL Institute of Education, London

Building an inclusive school doesn't happen by chance. It takes deliberate leadership, strong systems and shared commitment across the whole school community.

IncludEd is the annual one-day conference on inclusive mainstream education, hosted by The Difference. Built by people who work in schools, it brings together hundreds of teachers, leaders, researchers and policymakers to share what works. 

IncludEd 2027 will be The Difference's ninth annual conference, bringing together 900+ teachers, school leaders, trust and local authority leaders, researchers and policymakers who are building an education system that works for every child. 

What began as a small gathering in response to England's exclusion crisis has grown into a national community of people committed to making sure no child is left behind. This year's theme, Inclusion by Design, is about moving beyond good intentions to practical, evidence-informed strategy that makes inclusion visible, measurable and sustainable. It arrives as national SEND and inclusion reform lands, and the day is built to help you understand what it means for your school, trust or local authority.

Who you'll hear from

Sector experts, practitioners and researchers, including school leaders leading the way in inclusive education, researchers and advisers from Ofsted and the Department for Education. Confirmed speakers include Professor Carlene Firmin on contextual safeguarding; Dr Anne Heavey on the evolving SEND Code of Practice, young people who have been affected by some of the issues we’re all working to tackle. 

You'll leave with

• Policy and practice insights - what's working following national reform, and how to write your inclusion strategy and use data to reduce lost learning

• Whole-school frameworks - practical approaches to SEND reform and the inclusive classroom, and how to draw on your community for stronger collaboration

• Powerful networks - connections with 900+ colleagues across teaching, leadership, policy and research, and The Difference's network of 150+ partner schools

Explore 35 exhibitor stands between sessions, from schools sharing their inclusion practice to national organisations offering tools, services and support. See what other schools are using, swap ideas with colleagues, and meet the people and organisations you might want to work with, or get help and ideas from.

Strand 1: Built from the universal up
SEND reform and the inclusive classroom

• Recognising first presentation of need: how the SEND Code of Practice is evolving
  Dr Anne Heavey, from the DfE expert advisory group, explains the shift from “areas of need” to five “areas of development”, and how to support teachers to recognise and respond to need when it first presents, without waiting for a diagnosis.

Strand 2: Measurable and visible
Reducing exclusion through evidence and data

• But does my inclusion base work? Making measurements for inclusion provision
  Will Moss, Head of The Difference Schools Partnership, joins schools from across the country to share seven years of research and experimentation on measuring the success of inclusion bases, whatever you call them in your school.

• Lead, not lag: how can trusts get ahead of the data on lost learning?
  With Ofsted developing a new inspection framework for trusts, Lauren Thorpe (Open Education AI / United Learning Trust) and Dan Conley (Co-op Academies) show how they’re using data to spot the young people most likely to lose learning, before it happens.

• Inclusion in inspections: evidencing your impact
  Alumni of The Difference’s programmes reflect on their Ofsted inspections of the last year under the new framework.

• The Measure of the Moment: how will we know if the schools reforms have worked?
  Inclusion policy leaders from Ofsted and the DfE join sector leaders and young people to ask how we’ll know whether this decade of reform has succeeded. Chaired by the Deputy Editor of Schools Week.

Strand 3: Community collaboration
Family voice, partnership and belonging

• Boosting belonging: the circles model
  Leaders from Beacon Academy, Cleethorpes, and Morpeth School, Tower Hamlets, share how a “circles” model in pastoral time changed young people’s sense of belonging in two very different schools.

• Applying a restorative approach to parents
  Jo shares successful case studies, with the school leaders and parents involved, of taking an asset-based, restorative approach to working with the adults around young people.

• Contextual safeguarding with Professor Carlene Firmin
  The leading voice in contextual safeguarding shares her latest research on keeping young people safe from threats outside the home, and what it means for your school’s safeguarding strategy.

Strand 4: Led from the top
Inclusive leadership and school strategy

• Inclusion strategy: more than a piece of paper
  With the Inclusive Mainstream Grant asking schools for a strategy, Alice Bryant talks to two leaders about how they built strategies that changed staff confidence and delivered measurable impact for young people.

• Transforming inclusion across a local authority
  Two local authorities share how they developed LA-wide strategies to reduce lost learning through suspensions and young people leaving roll: what they did, what they learned and what changed.

• Admissions changes: what does it take to make your intake more inclusive?
  With the DfE consulting on admissions, hear from schools that have already shifted their cohort about the challenges they faced and the lessons for national policy.

Full timetable with bookable sessions available soon.