On-demand webinar

The Education Inspection Framework and SEND learners

Name: The Education Inspection Framework and SEND learners
Start: 2020-02-12T00:00:00.000Z

Marina Gaze, former Deputy Director for FE and Skills at Ofsted, on improving provision for learners with SEND under the inspection framework introduced in 2019. Recorded in 2020.

Recorded · 12 February 2020

This is an older recording. Some of it is out of date: see what's still relevant and what has changed.

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The Education Inspection Framework and SEND learners

Speakers

Marina Gaze
Former Deputy Director, FE and Skills, Ofsted, Independent

How to improve the quality of your provision

Ofsted’s 2019 framework made it very clear that learners and apprentices with SEND, and those with high needs, were hugely important in inspection. In this webinar, Marina Gaze, former Deputy Director for FE and Skills at Ofsted, looks at how to improve the quality of provision for them.

What we cover

Why you should quickly identify any additional learning support needs and plan learning to meet them
Why it's important to individualise learning and support, and help learners embed concepts in their long-term memory
Why impact matters, and how to help learners improve, develop and achieve
How learners with SEND featured in the 2019 framework

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Recorded February 2020 · reviewed October 2026

What's still relevant

Identifying learning support needs early and accurately, then planning learning around them, is still the heart of good practice for learners and apprentices with SEND.
High expectations without lowering the curriculum, with sequencing, practice and recall and no overloading of working memory.
Building independent learning skills, such as time management and note-taking, helps learners progress without depending on staff.
Leaders who analyse data for achievement gaps and build staff confidence still match what good inclusive provision looks like.

What's out of date

Overall effectiveness grade (from 7:57). A provider receives an overall effectiveness grade, and how learners with SEND achieve affects that grade. Now: The renewed framework, in use since November 2025, has no overall grade: each evaluation area is graded separately in a report card, and inclusion is graded in its own right.
The four key judgements (from 5:38). Inspectors grade quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management. Now: The areas are now safeguarding (met or not met), inclusion, leadership and governance, curriculum, teaching and training, achievement, and participation and development, plus contribution to meeting skills needs for colleges.
Intent, implementation and impact (from 8:45). The quality of education judgement is built from intent, implementation and impact. Now: The three I's are not a requirement of the renewed framework, though they remain a sound way to structure evidence.
About the assessment (from 13:21). The assessment has eight tasks covering literacy, numeracy and six cognitive domains, and has been used by over 50,000 learners. Now: The assessment measures nine cognitive domains in three indexes, and more than 400,000 learners have been assessed across FE, apprenticeships and adult skills.