SEND & Inclusion
We are nationally recognised experts in policy, practice and data for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), offering a range of data and consultancy services across the sector, including supporting with the 2026 SEND reforms
About our SEND & inclusion work
We are the UK’s leading SEND data specialist. For two decades, Mime has been supporting local authorities and their partners by making complex challenges easier to understand and act upon. We support every stage, from baselining and analysing SEND data and defining monitoring frameworks, to forecasting need, planning reforms, and demonstrating impact with evidence. The result is clear insights, improved data capability, and strategic advice that informs confident decisions that improve lives.
The 2026 SEND reforms present the biggest change to the special educational needs system in a decade. Local areas must demonstrate the impact of their reform plans over time. This requires access to clear information and actionable insights, not only from education, but also health and finance.
Trusted by more than 50 local authorities
We have worked with more than 50 local authorities across England to deliver SEND reforms, strengthen inclusion and plan future provision. This gives us unique insights into what is working.
We have access to detailed data on millions of young people across the country through our approved access to the National Pupil Database and Longitudinal Education Outcomes datasets. This helps ensure the accuracy and scope of our forecasting and analysis is unparalleled.
How we can help
We work with organisations across the SEND sector, including local authorities, regional partnerships, schools, policy makers and more, to make evidence based decisions, predict future trends and understand priorities for action. Our specific SEND and inclusion services include:
SEND reforms implementation and evaluation support
Build monitoring frameworks and advise on KPIs, analyse inclusion strategies, improve data processes, evaluate impact and provide context.
SEND Dashboard and infographics
Bring together data from over 100 separate sources from across education, health, and care, providing benchmarks, and giving a single, consistent picture as your reform plan progresses that anyone can understand.
Forecasting, including financial and provision sufficiency modelling
Anticipate future need for SEND provision using our tried and tested forecasting model, refined through more than a decade of work since 2011. Built in partnership with Wandsworth Council and used by 22 local authorities, our latest model supports robust local, regional and national forecasts. Compare your SEND cohort with similar local authorities and identify areas that need investment.
Shared learning and comparative insight help local areas move faster. Mime’s SEND Benchmarking Club, launched in Autumn 2026 to support the SEND White Paper reforms published earlier the same year, is the only national dataset for the SEND reforms of its kind. It gives senior leaders deeper understanding of trends, successful interventions and priorities for change. It is free to join and designed to minimise demands on your team.
The Club is now open. Founding members and Mime clients can join for free. If you want to join, please email Joe Miller, Mime Associate Director leading our work on SEND Reforms on joe.miller@mime.org.uk
Grounded in real-world SEND experience
We are deeply committed to improving experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND. Our approach is honest, human and expert.
Our core team is supported by a network of former local authority SEND leaders, SEND transformation specialists, teachers and practitioners, including a learning disability nurse and former Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Coordinator (SENCO). The result is analysis that is not only technically robust, but also practical, relevant and capable of driving meaningful change.
Partners
We work with local authorities, Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), NHS providers, multi-academy trusts, schools, practitioners and regional partnerships across England. We engage with every level of the system, from strategic leads and operational heads to practitioners and families. Our experience across education, health and local government, combined with our data and analysis expertise, makes us uniquely placed to support with SEND reform transformation.
Impact
Our research has shaped national SEND debate in Parliament and beyond, and has informed national and local policy on teacher training, workforce planning, inspection, outcomes measurement and partnership working. Expert media commentors cite our work, from the BBC to Schools Week, and our clients get measurable impact, for example Derbyshire County Council recently used our analysis to secure £2 million more for SEND-related central staffing costs.
Let’s create better outcomes from better data. When decisions matter, clarity is crucial. Get in touch to simplify the complicated, discover what matters, and move forward with confidence.
Dashboard products
Licences for our off-the-shelf dashboards for local authorities and education providers include commentary reports and infographics, pulling out the key insights from your data and explaining what they mean for you. To find out more about these products, click on the links below:
SEND Dashboard & Infographic
Our SEND Dashboard Service brings data together from over 100 sources to give a single, consistent picture of your service. We provide regularly updated interactive dashboards and insight reports, as well as a summary infographic. This gives users better oversight and supports more effective planning and better decision-making. Users can also drill-down into the data behind the headline messages, for example exploring school-level data or adding combinations of pupil characteristics.
Inclusion Index
We know that many schools work hard to be inclusive, but that this work is often not seen by traditional measures of school performance. Building on our popular local area Inclusion Index, we developed our school-level Inclusion Index. This draws together a range of indicators around inclusion, highlighting each school’s strengths and weaknesses.
SS Tracker
The SS Tracker is our online tool for tracking and evidencing the progress made by young people with SEND, with a particular focus on non-academic outcomes. This allows MATs, schools and young people themselves to recognise and demonstrate progress that does not show up in traditional performance measures.
Success Stories
To find out more about our work in SEND, take a look at our case studies:
