What the DfE's £200m SEND Training Announcement Means for Schools

On 16 January 2026, the Department for Education announced a £200 million SEND and inclusion training programme, running across this Parliament, that will provide free training materials to every school, college and nursery in England.

Most headteachers have heard of it. Far fewer are clear on what it actually is — and, importantly, what it isn't.

Here is a plain-English guide.

What the £200m Programme Actually Is

It is a DfE-commissioned content rollout, not a discretionary grant or procurement budget. In practice, the DfE is:

1. Producing whole-staff SEND training materials — online modules and in-person session content — covering all teaching and support staff, not just SENCOs
2. Distributing that content free of charge to every school and college in England for in-house delivery
3. Aiming to build capacity in mainstream classrooms so pupils with SEND are supported earlier — reducing pressure on the EHCP system, specialist provision, and exclusion

The explicit aim is to shift SEND support into everyday lessons rather than expand specialist resource bases.

What It Isn't

This is a universal entitlement, not a fund that schools, MATs or LAs apply for or procure against. There is no vendor eligibility framework, no competitive tender, and — as far as we can establish from DfE's own announcement and coverage in the education press — no route by which a private CPD provider's programme becomes "DfE fund-eligible." (The closest genuine analogue is the separate DfE Approved Training Provider framework for the Senior Mental Health Lead grant, which does not extend to this programme.)

If a school, MAT, or provider tells you a specific commercial training package is "DfE-funded" or "fund-eligible" under this announcement, it's worth asking exactly which mechanism they mean — we couldn't find one, and we'd rather say that plainly than repeat a claim we can't stand behind.

Why Act Now Anyway

Even without a funding deadline, the pressure on schools to evidence whole-staff SEND training is real and immediate: Ofsted's inclusion focus, rising EHCP referral numbers, and governor scrutiny aren't waiting for a procurement window. Schools that leave SEND CPD as an informal, ad-hoc activity are the ones that struggle to produce a clear completion record when asked for one.

If you are a SBM, SENCO, or senior leader reading this: the question worth resolving this term is whether your school has a structured, whole-staff SEND CPD programme in place at all — built on DfE's free materials, a paid programme, or a blend of both.

What to Look For in a Whole-Staff SEND CPD Programme

Whichever route you take, the same quality bar applies. A strong programme will:

• Be INSET-ready — no additional external trainer cost or scheduling headache
• Cover all staff, not just SENCOs and TAs
• Be CPD-aligned, so every participant receives a verifiable certificate
• Be grounded in evidence-based frameworks — EEF Five-a-Day, Universal Design for Learning, or equivalent
• Provide a completion record — a training register or dashboard that evidences participation for Ofsted

How See It. Support It. Teach It. Fits the Bill

Our own programme, See It. Support It. Teach It., is built to that same bar — as a paid, structured alternative or complement to DfE's free materials, not as something purchased with a DfE grant.

It is a three-module, CPD-aligned (Member No. 22898) whole-staff programme built on the EEF Five-a-Day framework. It is INSET-ready — your own staff facilitate it with no external trainer required. Every participant receives an official CPD certificate. The MAT licence includes a Compliance Dashboard that produces a training register evidencing all completion.

A MAT licence covering multiple schools typically costs less than the fee for a single external training day for your whole staff — and produces a compliance record you can use across all schools.