Our latest Leadership Focus feature, SEND: a system at breaking point, tackles a challenge that school leaders across all settings are increasingly encountering: the mounting struggle to secure the right support for children with additional needs.

The situation is stark. The number of children with additional needs is rising faster than the system can manage, leaving schools and families to navigate the consequences on their own.

In this feature, you’ll find:

• Real experiences from school leaders doing everything they can with too little support
• Stories of children who’ve thrived when staff were given the right tools and conditions
• A view from Wales and Northern Ireland, showing how different approaches and challenges affect SEND provision
• What needs to change, and what NAHT is calling on the government to fix.

What shines through is the dedication and creativity of leaders and staff, even in the toughest circumstances.

We want to hear from you

After reading the piece, we’d welcome your reflections, whether that’s what resonates most strongly with you, what feels familiar or what you think is being missed.

We share member feedback directly with our policy and campaigns teams, and your insight genuinely shapes the work we do – from the positions we take to the priorities we press government to act on. Your voice really does make a difference.