Preparing for ISPs — a 12-month plan for SENDCos

A practical guide to getting your school ready for the September 2029 ISP deadline.

A note from Leanne

I've been a SENDCo for a long time. Long enough to remember IEPs being the new thing in the late 1990s. Long enough to remember EHCPs replacing statements in 2014. Long enough to know that big SEND reforms always feel impossible at the start and obvious in hindsight.

The SEND Reform White Paper is the biggest change since 2014. It introduces statutory ISPs for every pupil on SEN Support, mandates co-production with parents, and brings the whole SEN Support tier into a structured inspection framework. It's the right reform. It's also a lot of work.

This guide is the plan I wish someone had handed me when I read the White Paper for the first time. It's a 12-month rhythm you can run in any window between now and August 2029. The earlier you start, the more cycles you compound, and the easier the deadline becomes.

The plan is deliberately modest. It doesn't expect you to do everything at once. It picks small, sequenced moves that add up to being properly ready by September 2029. Each month has a clear focus, a clear output, and a realistic time commitment.

Use it however suits your school. Adapt the templates. Skip the steps that don't apply. The point isn't the document — the point is being ready.

— Leanne Awcock, co-founder, My School View

How to use this guide

This guide is structured into 12 monthly steps. Each step has:

• A focus (what you're doing this month)
• An output (what you'll have at the end of it)
• A time estimate (typical workload)
• Templates and prompts where useful

You can follow the plan strictly, month by month. You can compress it into six months if you're starting later. You can stretch it across two academic years if you have the time. The sequence matters more than the timeline.

Wherever you see the SENDCo View logo, that's a place where the platform we build is designed to help. You don't need SENDCo View to follow this plan — but if it's useful, the founding school programme is on the back page.

Month 1 — Audit your starting position

Focus: Map what currently exists.

Output: A baseline picture of your SEND cohort, current tooling, and biggest pain points.

Time: A morning of focused work, plus an hour to write up.

Before you change anything, you need to know what you're working with. Spend the first month auditing.

Pupil cohort audit

Pull from your MIS:

• Total pupils on roll
• Pupils flagged as SEN Support
• Pupils with EHCPs
• Pupils with no formal SEND status but who staff have raised concerns about

For each SEN Support pupil, categorise their current plan status:

• Has a current IEP (within last 12 months)
• Has an old IEP (over 12 months old)
• Has provision logged but no formal plan
• Nothing formal in place

Current tooling audit

For each piece of SEND data, note where it lives today:

| Data | Where it lives | Format | |------|----------------|--------| | Pupil basics (DOB, year, contact) | | | | Attendance | | | | Behaviour | | | | Assessment data | | | | Medical | | | | IEP/Plan | | | | Intervention records | | | | Intervention costs | | | | Professional involvement (EP, SALT, etc.) | | | | Parent voice | | | | Pupil voice | | | | APDR cycle records | | |

Be honest about what's actually in a system versus what's in a Word document or a colleague's head.

Pain points

In a single page, write down:

• The three most painful tasks in your current SEND workflow
• The three pieces of data hardest to get hold of when you need them
• The three things that consume the most of your time week-to-week

Keep this page. You'll come back to it in month 6 when you're picking tooling.

Month 2 — Pilot with 10 pupils

Focus: Write 10 ISPs in the new format, by hand or template.

Output: Ten worked ISPs and a clear picture of where the friction is.

Time: 6–10 hours over the month.

Pick 10 pupils across a range of needs. Aim for variety — high need and lower need, communication and learning, EAL and English-first, primary and end-of-Key-Stage. The point is to stress-test the new format against your real cohort.

For each pupil, write an ISP using the template at the back of this guide. Don't try to fit your existing data into the new structure — write fresh, using the assessment as the starting point.

Track your time per ISP. Track which data sources you used. Note which sections were easy and which were painful.

By the end of the month, you'll have:

• 10 ISPs in the new five-section format
• A clear picture of how long each one takes
• A list of data sources you reached for repeatedly
• A list of things you couldn't easily find

This is the most important month in the year. Everything that follows is informed by what you discover here.

Month 3 — Define your school's standard

Focus: Write a one-page guide that defines what "good" looks like at your school.

Output: An ISP standard operating procedure.

Time: 2–3 hours.

Now you've piloted the format, define what good looks like for your school. The output is a one-page document that becomes your reference for staff training, new SENDCos, and inspection conversations.

The document should cover:

1. The five-section ISP structure. What goes in each section (you can adapt from the article How to write an ISP on our website).

2. Your school's preferences. Outcome wording style, RAG criteria, review cadence, parent communication norms.

3. Roles and responsibilities. Who writes the plan, who contributes observations, who reviews, who signs off.

4. Co-production rhythm. When parents are contacted, what's asked, how contributions are captured.

5. Audit trail expectations. What needs to be recorded, where, for how long.

Share the draft with one or two trusted colleagues. Refine based on their feedback. Then share with your SLT and governing body.

Month 4 — Train the wider staff

Focus: Bring class teachers, form tutors, and pastoral staff up to speed.

Output: A trained staff body who know what they contribute.

Time: A 90-minute INSET session, plus prep.

ISPs aren't just a SENDCo job. They depend on contributions from class teachers, form tutors, the pastoral team, and learning support assistants.

A 90-minute INSET session can cover:

• 15 minutes: What the SEND Reform White Paper changes (high level)
• 20 minutes: The five-section ISP and what each contains
• 15 minutes: What teachers contribute (observations, evidence of provision, outcome RAG)
• 15 minutes: What pastoral teams contribute (parent contact, behaviour patterns, wider context)
• 15 minutes: How co-production works
• 10 minutes: How to flag a pupil who might need an ISP

Don't try to make every staff member an ISP expert. They need to know what they contribute and when.

If your CPD calendar is tight, plan for an autumn INSET. The earlier the staff training, the longer the cohort has to absorb the change.

Month 5 — Run a co-production rhythm

Focus: Try a structured co-production rhythm with your pilot 10 pupils' parents.

Output: A co-production rhythm that works for your families.

Time: Variable — 30–60 minutes per pupil per term.

The rhythm we'd recommend:

Start of cycle: A short structured prompt (3–4 questions, easy to answer):

• What's been going well at home?
• What's been hard?
• Has anything changed?
• What would you most like for your child this term?

Mid-cycle update: Half a screen, sent four to five weeks in:

• Here's what we've been seeing at school
• Here's what's been working
• Here's what we're trying differently

Pre-review signal: A few days before the review meeting:

• Here's what we'll discuss
• Here's where we'd particularly like your input

At review: Parent contributes (in person, by phone, in writing, by video). Capture in writing.

Between cycles: A clear channel for parents to flag issues outside the formal review.

Run this rhythm for one full term with the pilot 10. Learn what works for your families. Adjust.

Month 6 — Pick your tooling

Focus: Decide what tool will support the new way of working.

Output: A tooling decision and procurement plan.

Time: 3–5 hours of evaluation, plus procurement process.

By now you've worked with the new format for half a year. You know what you need.

Use the criteria from our article Why Provision Map isn't enough any more:

• Five-section ISPs as a first-class concept
• Secure parent portal with one-click invitations
• Deep MIS data fusion
• One-click EHCP evidence packs
• APDR cycles structured into the workflow
• Costed interventions linked to outcomes
• Field-level permissions
• Full audit trail
• Article 28 DPA
• Built for the White Paper

Evaluate the candidates against these. Demo at least three. Don't pick on price alone — the difference between a good fit and a poor fit will be the difference between a manageable workload and a catastrophic one in 2029.

If you're a small school with limited budget, the founding school offer at SENDCo View is £599 lifetime — a one-off fee that gets you the full platform forever. We're capping at 10 schools.

Month 7 — Roll out to a wider cohort

Focus: Take your tooling, your standard, your rhythm, and your trained staff, and roll out to 30–50 pupils.

Output: A working SEND system supporting a quarter of your cohort.

Time: 8–15 hours over the month, depending on cohort size.

The 10-pupil pilot revealed obvious frictions. The 30–50 pupil rollout reveals scaling frictions. Watch for:

• Class teachers managing observations across more ISPs
• Parent portal adoption rates
• SENDCo time blocks not being enough for the volume
• Pastoral team links to SEND data

These are good problems. They're the ones to solve before September 2029, not at it.

Month 8 — Mock inspection

Focus: Run an internal mock inspection against the new Ofsted SEND framework.

Output: A list of weaknesses to address.

Time: A full day for the mock plus half a day for the writeup.

You can do this internally with your governing body's SEND link, or you can engage an external consultant. The brief is the same: pretend it's an Ofsted inspection focused on SEND.

The mock should look at:

• ISP quality across the cohort (sample a dozen pupils)
• APDR cycle evidence
• Parent co-production evidence (interview a parent if you can)
• Outcome tracking and RAG history
• Intervention costs and outcomes
• The graduated approach for pupils not yet at ISP stage

Output: a prioritised list of weaknesses. Some will be policy fixes, some tooling, some capacity. Use the next three months to address them.

Month 9 — Address the biggest weaknesses

Focus: Fix the three biggest gaps from the mock inspection.

Output: A stronger system addressing inspection-grade scrutiny.

Time: 5–10 hours over the month.

Take the mock findings and fix the top three. Don't try to solve everything. The smaller gaps can wait.

This is also a good month to bring your Bursar and Head into the planning conversation if they haven't been involved already. The funding model changes (the £1.6bn Inclusive Mainstream Fund) need their attention. The intervention cost data you've been building feeds their financial reporting.

Month 10 — Full cohort rollout

Focus: Roll out to all SEN Support pupils.

Output: Every SEN Support pupil on a structured ISP.

Time: 15–25 hours over the month, depending on cohort size.

By now you've piloted with 10, scaled to 30–50, addressed the biggest weaknesses, and trained the staff. The full rollout should be the last big step.

Realistic expectations:

• Some pupils will have thin ISPs at first because their data history is thin. That's fine. The plan compounds over cycles.
• Some parents will engage immediately; some need persistent outreach.
• Some staff will adapt quickly; some need more support.
• The first full cycle takes longer than later cycles.

Month 11 — First full review cycle

Focus: Run the full APDR cycle for the full cohort.

Output: A working termly rhythm.

Time: 20–30 hours over the term, depending on cohort size.

This is the test. Run the cycle as designed. Track the time it takes. The first full cycle for the full cohort tells you whether the SENDCo workload is sustainable.

If it isn't, you have time to add capacity (more SENDCo time, an assistant, better tooling) before the deadline.

Month 12 — Stabilise and document

Focus: Make the new way of working sustainable.

Output: A documented, stable, scaled SEND system.

Time: 3–5 hours of writing and communication.

Document what works. Update your standard operating procedure with the lessons learned. Train new staff. Update governors. Communicate to parents that this is now business as usual.

Set up the rhythm for the next academic year. Termly cycles aligned with school terms. Annual reviews scheduled. Inspection readiness maintained.

Templates

Template 1: ISP (blank, five sections)

Pupil name: ________________________

DOB: ________________________ Year group: ________________________

SENDCo: ________________________ Date: ________________________

1. Strengths and needs

Strengths (academic, social, creative, character):

Needs (mapped to four areas: communication and interaction; cognition and learning; SEMH; sensory/physical):

Parent observations from home:

2. Barriers

What is currently preventing this pupil from learning effectively?

| # | Barrier | Where it presents | |---|---------|-------------------| | 1 | | | | 2 | | | | 3 | | |

3. Provision

| Provision | Who delivers | Frequency / duration | Cost | Targeted outcome(s) | |-----------|--------------|----------------------|------|---------------------| | | | | | |

4. Outcomes

| # | Outcome | Indicator | Target date | RAG | |---|---------|-----------|-------------|-----| | 1 | | | | | | 2 | | | | | | 3 | | | | |

5. Review (completed at end of cycle)

Outcome status (RAG):

What worked:

What didn't:

Parent voice:

Pupil voice:

Changes for next cycle:

Signatures:

SENDCo: ________________________ Date: ________________________

Parent: ________________________ Date: ________________________

Template 2: Parent co-production prompt

Sent at the start of each cycle.

Dear [parent name],

We're starting a new review cycle for [pupil name]. To make sure the plan reflects what's happening at home as well as at school, please take a few minutes to answer these questions:

1. What's been going well at home this term?
2. What's been hard or worrying?
3. Has anything changed (routines, family circumstances, friendships)?
4. What would you most like for [pupil name] this term?

You can reply to this email, fill in the form online (link), or call me on [number]. Whatever's easiest.

Thanks, [SENDCo name]

Template 3: Mock inspection checklist

For each pupil sampled (aim for 10–15 across a range of needs):

• Has a current ISP in the five-section format
• ISP has been reviewed within the last term
• Outcomes are specific and measurable
• Outcomes are RAG-rated
• Provision lists are specific (who, how often, how long, cost)
• Parent has contributed in writing or in a recorded meeting
• Parent contribution is referenced in the most recent review
• Pupil voice is captured
• APDR cycles are visible going back at least 12 months
• Intervention costs are recorded
• If on EHCP path, evidence pack is available or readily generatable
• Audit trail shows who has accessed and edited the record

Whole-cohort checks:

• Every SEN Support pupil has an ISP (or scheduled ISP) in the new format
• APDR cycles align with termly rhythm across the cohort
• Co-production rate (parent contribution per cycle) is above 80%
• Field-level permissions in place
• DPA in place with the SEND software provider
• Staff have been trained on the new standard
• SENDCo workload is sustainable

Template 4: APDR review meeting agenda (30 minutes)

| Time | Item | |------|------| | 0:00–0:05 | Welcome, recap of last cycle's outcomes | | 0:05–0:15 | Outcome RAG status and discussion | | 0:15–0:20 | Parent contribution: what's been working, what's been hard | | 0:20–0:25 | Pupil voice (where age-appropriate, pupil joins for this) | | 0:25–0:30 | Changes for next cycle, agreed actions |

What we built

SENDCo View is the platform we wish had existed when the White Paper landed. The five-section ISP, termly APDR cycles, parent co-production through a secure portal, costed interventions, one-click EHCP evidence packs — all in one place.

We're working with a founding cohort of 10 schools through 2026 to make sure it fits the way real SENDCos actually work.

Founding school offer:

• £599 one-off, lifetime access
• All future product updates included
• Direct line to the founders
• Monthly product calls, you set the agenda
• A vote on what we build next
• Capped at 10 schools

See the founding school programme →