The Gallery Trust Outreach Service

Working alongside partners to improve outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) across the wider system.

Our outreach work is grounded in the belief that every child belongs, wherever they are educated. We aim to support schools, settings, and professionals to create inclusive, nurturing environments where children feel safe, understood, and able to thrive.

We work collaboratively with schools, families, and local authorities to build confidence, capability, and capacity, rather than dependency. Our approach is relational and respectful, starting from a deep understanding of each setting’s context and the strengths already in place.

Through outreach, we:

• Share specialist SEND knowledge and evidence-informed practice
• Support inclusive curriculum design, behaviour support, and emotional wellbeing
• Strengthen leadership, staff confidence, and systems for inclusion
• Help remove barriers that prevent children from accessing learning and belonging

We embrace difference and complexity, recognising that inclusion looks different in every context. Our outreach work values partnership, co-production, and reflection, ensuring support is purposeful, practical, and sustainable.

With courage, we advocate for children and young people, challenge deficit thinking, and support schools to make principled decisions in the best interests of learners. We are not a compliance service: we are a collaborative partner committed to meaningful, long-term improvement.

Ultimately, the purpose of The Gallery Trust’s Outreach Provision is to improve life chances, strengthen inclusive practice across the system, and ensure that more children and young people with SEND experience success, belonging, and opportunity wherever they learn.

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Our Outreach Offer

Our outreach support is bespoke, developmental, and evidence-driven, designed to meet the needs of individual settings and support meaningful, long-term improvement.

Inclusion reviews and action planning

This includes:

• Structured inclusion reviews to evaluate SEND practice, provision, and systems
• Support to reframe SEND from a deficit-based model to a developmental, needs-led approach
• Collaborative action planning with leaders and SENDCOs to identify priorities
• Guidance on curriculum design, classroom practice, and reasonable adjustments
• Clear, practical next steps that support sustainable change and improved outcomes

SEND Clinics and professionals’ consultations

This includes:

• Structured problem-solving around individual pupils or groups
• Support to deepen the understanding of need, viewing behaviour as communication
• Guidance on the graduated response, reasonable adjustments, and SEND processes
• Professional conversations to build staff confidence, consistency, and shared understanding

Developing inclusive systems

This includes:

• Support for SENDCOs and senior leaders to strengthen whole-school SEND systems
• Advice on curriculum pathways based on developmental need rather than chronological age
• Input into enhanced or specialist provision within mainstream settings
• Alignment with current national guidance and best practice

Training and Professional Development

This includes bespoke training for teachers, support staff, and leaders in areas such as:

• Sensory Processing training
• Anxiety, masking, and avoidance
• The PACE approach
• Understanding behaviour as communication
• Total communication
• Strength-based and evidence-informed approaches to SEND

We aim to work with schools, not to them. Our outreach is collaborative, reflective, and focused on building capacity, ensuring that improvements to SEND practice are embedded over time.

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Special School Outreach (SSO) in Partnership with Oxfordshire County Council

Outreach and SEND clinics are offered as part of the Special School Outreach programme run with Oxfordshire County Council SEND Strategic Early Intervention Team and include:

• Leadership support: working with senior leadership teams to promote an inclusive culture, identify strengths, and create plans for development.
• Key worker development: working with staff to develop their skills, knowledge, and confidence in meeting the needs of pupils.
• SEND clinic: opportunities for staff to visit our schools, observe in class, review resources, and meet with staff to model approaches or strategies.

Referrals for this support are made through the Oxfordshire County Council SENDCO Helpdesk. These referrals will be allocated to the most appropriate service by the SEND Strategic Development and Improvement Team.

Please note: We will signpost schools to other services where we feel the needs of the child can be better met through their involvement. Special school places are managed by the Local Authority, and pupil placements may not be materially impacted by previous special school support.