The Inclusion Audit

Trial Access

Can every child be present, participate, progress and belong?
 

The Inclusion Audit is a practical reflective tool designed to help SENCos evaluate inclusive practice across their school.

Rather than simply asking whether SEND provision exists, the audit encourages a deeper exploration of children's actual experiences of school.

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Using four cardinal points — Presence, Participation, Progress and Belonging — SENCos can gather evidence, identify barriers, recognise strengths and inform meaningful school improvement.

The audit also considers two important enabling conditions: Equity and Staff Capacity.

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How to use the audit:  
Work through the six sections, recording your professional judgement and adding evidence as it becomes available.
 

You can:
 

• Score individual areas using the assessment scale.

• Add multiple pieces of evidence, each with its own date and timestamp.

• Record emerging findings and actions.

• Monitor changes in professional judgement over time.

• Identify three priorities for school improvement.

• Download a backup and print your completed audit.
   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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This is intended to be a living record. You can return to it throughout the academic year as new evidence emerges.

 

Privacy and Data Protection:

Where is my information stored?
 

The current version of the Inclusion Audit saves information locally within the browser on the device you are using.
 

The information entered into the audit is not transmitted to The SENCo's Compass or stored in its website database by the audit application.
 

Please be aware that:
 

• Your information will not automatically transfer between devices or browsers.

• Clearing browser data or site storage may remove your saved audit.

• Anyone with access to your browser profile may potentially access the saved information.

• Downloaded backups and PDF reports are not encrypted and should be stored securely.
   

Important guidance on pupil information
 

This tool is designed for school-level evaluation and professional reflection. Please use aggregated data and anonymised examples only.

Do not enter pupil names, initials, dates of birth, family details or other personally identifiable information.
 

Schools remain responsible for ensuring that their use of the audit and any information recorded complies with their own data protection policies and UK GDPR obligations.

The audit is a reflective school improvement resource, not a statutory assessment or a substitute for the school's formal safeguarding, data protection or SEND processes.

The SENCo's Compass — supporting informed professional judgement and meaningful inclusive practice.

Drift Task Identity:
Use the Drift Tracker to confirm who the task belonged to before you caught it.
Log the time the task took AND the cognitive cost time of recovering from that interruption.
Now you are gathering the cold, hard data you may need to renegotiate your boundaries.

One further consideration:​

• One further recommendation: ask your school's Data Protection Officer to review the wording and the school's use of the tool before adopting it formally. The website's own cookie and privacy arrangements should also be considered separately.

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⚓ Compass principle

Move from assumption to evidence, from evidence to judgement, and from judgement to action with these four principles.
 

PRESENCE

PARTICIPATION

PROGRESS

BELONGING

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