The new Academy Trust Handbook (published 15^th July 2026) sends a clear message: inclusion must sit at the heart of a trust’s improvement strategy.

From October 2026, trusts are expected to ensure that inclusion is embedded across all aspects of their provision. The handbook describes inclusion in practical terms: pupils should be able to access high-quality teaching and appropriate support, and participate fully in school life. Trusts should also establish a clear trust-wide approach, deploy expertise effectively, monitor access, participation and outcomes, evaluate impact, and provide trustees with assurance about the quality and consistency of inclusive practice.

This is significant because it goes far beyond the expectation simply to have an inclusion policy.

The more important questions are now:

• What do our pupils experience in classrooms?
• Is high-quality teaching consistent across schools?
• Can staff identify and respond to barriers to learning?
• Are expertise and resources deployed effectively?
• Can leaders see where participation or outcomes are weaker?
• Can trustees be confident that practice is improving?

These are questions about teaching, professional expertise, leadership and evidence.

Inclusion must reach the classroom

A trust-wide inclusion strategy will only matter if it changes pupils’ daily experiences in ways that lead to better outcomes.

For us, an inclusive school is one where:

Everyone is welcome.
Everyone participates.
Everyone belongs.
Everyone learns.
Learning is ambitious.
Expectations are high.
Support is high.

Policies and specialist provision matter. But inclusion is also created through thousands of everyday decisions: how teachers explain, question, check understanding, build relationships, respond to mistakes and adapt support without lowering ambition.

That is why great teaching should sit at the centre of a trust’s inclusion strategy.

Inclusion depends on expertise

The handbook calls for the effective deployment of expertise and resources across schools. That should prompt trusts to consider not only where specialist expertise sits, but how the expertise of every teacher is developed.

Every teacher should have access to:

• high-quality evidence-based training;
• practical approaches they can use in their classrooms;
• meaningful feedback;
• opportunities to collaborate purposefully;
• sustained professional learning; and
• insight that helps them decide what to improve next.

Professional learning should itself be inclusive. It should not depend entirely on whether an individual teacher has access to a coach, has been selected for a programme or works in a particular school.

Assurance requires meaningful evidence

The handbook also expects trusts to monitor access, participation and outcomes, evaluate the impact of provision, and give boards assurance about the consistency of inclusive practice.

This should not mean producing more paperwork.

It should mean building a useful picture of:

• pupils’ perceptions and experiences of teaching;
• the strengths and development needs of teachers;
• the quality of school environment and leadership;
• participation in professional learning; and
• whether improvement activity is changing practice in ways that impact learning.

Measurement should support better decisions, not simply demonstrate compliance.

From aspiration to improvement system

Trusts will likely connect four things to create an inclusive improvement system:

1. A clear definition of inclusive education.
2. A shared model of great teaching.
3. Sustained professional learning for every teacher.
4. Meaningful evidence that helps leaders evaluate and improve practice.

The Great Teaching Toolkit is designed to help schools and trusts bring these elements together. It supports the development and measurement of great teaching and the school environments that enable it.

The new handbook should not prompt trusts to create another inclusion initiative. It should prompt them to ask whether they have a coherent, trust-wide system for making great, inclusive teaching more consistent.

Reviewing your trust-wide approach to inclusion?

Speak to us about how the Great Teaching Toolkit can help you develop teacher expertise, understand pupil experience and provide stronger assurance about improvement across your schools.