Strategic SEND Leader
Advancing Neuroinclusive Practice

The Strategic SEND Leader Programme is designed for ambitious professionals in SEND leadership roles, who aim to enhance their operational expertise and leadership capabilities.

This includes, but is not limited to:

• SENCOs
• Heads of Inclusion in schools or Trusts
• Senior Leadership Team members overseeing the SEND department.

You will gain:

• Skills to ensure your SEND department’s operational effectiveness
• Ability to maximise the performance of your team and staff with whom you work closely in the wider school community
• Competency to collaborate with senior leaders and confidently roll-out new initiatives
• Personal tuition from a former Head or SENCO. Plus, one-to-one leadership coaching sessions.

Gain Associate membership to the Institute of Leadership (IoL). As a member, you’ll be able to professionalise your experience as a part of their global community of 50,000 and also gain access to a suite of additional resources, including:

• IoL-branded certification upon completion of the programme
• Digital credential/badge (sharable on social media)
• Post-nominal letters after your name (i.e. AIoL)
• Access to webinars, podcasts, blogs and research on leadership
• Access to a mentor and career advice.

Advance your leadership journey. A powerful catalyst for your professional advancement, this course:

• Encourages and supports analysis, critique, and influence over immediate provision as well as the wider school community and beyond
• Equips you with the high-level, systematic thinking and strategic planning skills needed in senior roles such as Director of Inclusion, Assistant/Deputy Headteacher with responsibility for SEND, or a multi-academy trust (MAT) wide Inclusion Lead
• Provides skills and knowledge that are highly sought after by schools, Local Authorities and MATs looking for visionary leaders to drive sustained improvement in SEND provision.

This 15-month programme is taught via a blended learning model, including opportunities to come together to share ideas with other SEND leaders.

• Online learning – study flexibly at a time and place that suits you.
• Self-directed project work – apply new knowledge and skills through practical projects and research in your setting. Build a portfolio of evidence that will help embed your learning and allow you to have a positive impact from the very start.
• Live online group workshops – mandatory workshops (2-3 hours) with SEND and leadership experts, plus follow-up discussions and opportunities to share good practice.
• Deliver an Improvement project – identify a key challenge in your setting to tackle over the duration of the programme. From planning to implementation and review, this project will deliver whole-school positive impact.
• Organise a visit to or liaise with a high-performing setting – to observe and identify best practices.
• SEND masterclasses – interactive 2 to 3 hour webinars from our SEND experts, where you’ll learn from speech therapists, dyslexia experts and educational psychologists with a specialist focus in autism, trauma, mental health and more
• Leadership coaching – one-to-one leadership coaching sessions with your dedicated leadership coach

All apprentices studying with ESF Apprenticeships receive invitations to attend a series of SEND Masterclasses. These virtual masterclasses will develop your knowledge and understanding of supporting pupils with send. Topics include:

• Dyslexia & practical tips to support pupils
• Trauma
• Communication needs
• Autism Spectrum Conditions
• Behaviour and barriers to learning – including mental health
• Understanding and supporting learners with sensory and visual needs
• Challenges related to accessing maths
• Supporting and understanding attachment disorder
• Executive functioning and concentration difficulties (including ADHD)
• Speech and language delay

Attendance at the masterclasses is optional although highly recommended. Recordings will be available if you’re unable to attend the live sessions.

Termly progress reviews will be conducted in which growth and successes will be celebrated. There will be an opportunity to discuss any challenges faced. These will be scheduled with your mentor and apprenticeship tutor at a time that is convenient for you.

The final progress review is combined with a Gateway meeting. Once this is completed, you will enter your End-Point Assessment period. You will write a 4,000-4,500 word dissertation which relates to the key challenge you identified.

Throughout your time on the programme, you will also compile a portfolio of evidence demonstrating you have achieved the knowledge, skills and behaviours required by the apprenticeship standard. This portfolio is not assessed, but underpins the professional discussion you will have with your Assessor during the final assessment.

We have developed a blended teaching and learning model which works for busy school professionals.

Scheduled release time:

• 2-3 hours every month for live online learning with an experienced former Head or SENCO. You will also have the chance to share ideas with other SEND leaders across the country studying on this programme
• 3 online sessions with a leadership coach.

Flexible release time:

• You will have access to our self-paced online learning platform, full of resources, ideas and research materials
• You will also complete practical projects and a SEND improvement plan that can be carried out in a school environment and will be of direct benefit to your pupils and your setting
• You will also need release time for regular progress reviews with your ESF tutor and workplace mentor in which you will set new targets and celebrate success. These are short sessions that will take place every 12 weeks at a time and date to suit you and your mentor
• Time to attend our SEND Masterclasses held every six weeks during term time (optional, but highly recommended. Recordings are available should you be unable to attend live).

This programme can be fully funded using the Growth and Skills Levy (formerly known as the Apprenticeship Levy). In line with government apprenticeship funding bands, the cost of the full training package is £15,000.

If you are a school, nursery, MAT or local authority apprenticeship-levy paying employer (i.e. you have a wage bill in excess of £3m) then 100% of the apprenticeship is paid for using your employer levy pot.

We advise applicants to discuss details and gain approval to access the employers levy with their Business Manager / Finance Director prior to registration.

If you do not pay the levy then the Government will fund 95% of the apprenticeship and you will need to commit to paying 5% of the fee which is £750. Larger organisations can support other organisations, by making up to 50% of their annual levy funds available to eligible employers who need financial assistance with apprenticeships. ESF Apprenticeships should be able to support your organisation to fund the whole cost of this apprenticeship using another organisation’s unused funds via a process known as Levy Transfer.

• The April 2026 cohort is open for applications.

You must: 

• Have leadership responsibility for SEND within an educational setting
• Have lived in England for the last three years and have the right to work in the UK.
• Be employed at least 16 hours a week and spend at least 50% of your working hours in England over the apprenticeship duration.
• Achieved a minimum of Grade 4 (Grade C) or above in GCSE English, or hold an equivalent Level 2 Functional Skills.

Your employer must:

• Agree and enrol you as an apprentice (we can support with this)
• Appoint a workplace mentor to support you and attend the termly progress reviews

Please note: This programme is open to delegates in England only.

To apply for the Strategic SEND Leader programme, please choose your preferred cohort via our online booking form and then enter your details in order to complete your registration. You will then receive access to ESF Learn, our virtual learning environment, where you will continue your application.

Upon completion of the Strategic SEND Leader programme, you will gain the Level 6 Improvement Leader qualification and be able to apply for Recognition of Prior Learning for a total of 30 credits that can be used towards one of our Postgraduate Diplomas or Masters Degrees. These credits can be added to any existing credits that you hold, or are able to have recognised, perhaps from studying the National Award for SEN Coordination or a Leadership NPQ.