David Bartram: Effective Trust Leadership of SEND

How can trust leaders create the conditions for consistently high-quality SEND provision across all their schools? In this session, David Bartram OBE draws on years of national work with Multi-Academy Trusts to explore what effective, strategic leadership of SEND looks like at trust level. From building a culture of inclusion to aligning systems, accountability, and professional learning, David will share practical frameworks and examples that help trusts move from good intentions to meaningful impact for learners with SEND.

About the speaker

A teaching assistant, history teacher and senior leader, David led special educational needs and disability provision (SEND) in London schools for over 15 years. He was a member of the Department for Education’s SEND Review steering group and an expert advisor to the Timpson Review on school exclusions. David has worked directly with over seven hundred school leadership teams across the UK to improve their SEND provision. 

David is author of the SEND Review Guide, a national framework funded by the DfE. In 2018 he edited Great Expectations: Leading an Effective SEND Strategy in School. He was Director of SEND at the London Leadership Strategy and an advisor to the Mayor of London’s education team. As part of his international work he has supported the development of Inclusion policy in a number of countries including Ethiopia, Seychelles, Thailand and Malaysia.  David is a trustee of the KPMG Foundation, which seeks to bring about systemic change in business and society and unlock the potential of the most disadvantaged children in the UK. 

David was awarded an OBE for Services to Special Education in the 2016 New Year’s Honours list.