Wasim Butt

National Director of AP & Special, Ormiston Academies Trust

Wasim is a member of the executive leadership team at Ormiston Academies Trust (OAT), a family of 45 schools across England. As National Director, he oversees a cluster of special and alternative provision academies and leads OAT’s national strategy for inclusion. Wasim’s career spans mainstream, special, and alternative settings, including serving as a headteacher and executive headteacher in inner London before joining OAT in 2021. His work focuses on supporting schools to build inclusive cultures through strong leadership, high-quality teaching and effective support for pupils with additional needs. He was also a member of the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) Inclusion Taskforce, contributing practitioner insight to the national report Breaking the Cycle: A Blueprint for SEND Reform (2025).

1 Workshop series one

Supporting school leaders to maximise the impact of the SENCO role

Across England, the SENCO role is under increasing pressure, with rising vacancies, unsustainable workloads and growing expectations, set against a rapidly changing policy landscape. The SEND Reform White Paper signals a shift towards a more strategic SENCO role, while the new Ofsted framework places greater emphasis on inclusion and how effectively schools support pupils with SEND. This session explores what these changes mean in practice for schools and trusts. Drawing on system leadership experience across a school trust, it will examine how leaders can reposition the SENCO role towards strategic leadership of inclusive provision and teaching. Participants will gain practical approaches to workforce design, distributed leadership and SENCO support to strengthen inclusive classrooms and improve the sustainability of the role.